Making Investments for a Sustainable Future

The Port of Seattle honors businesses, tenants, and non-profits with Sustainable Century Awards that demonstrate environmental leadership and are critical partners in helping the Port achieve its environmental stewardship, sustainability, and equity goals. 

This year, Lineage Logistics, the leading temperature-controlled industrial REIT and integrated solutions provider, and one of the Port’s oldest tenants at Terminal 91, has been honored for their environmental performance. Lineage Logistics is a global leader in temperature-controlled logistics and is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2040.  

“I'm honored to recognize long-standing tenants, like Lineage Logistics, who are stepping up as industry transformation and sustainability leaders,” said Sandra Kilroy, Senior Director of Environment and Sustainability. “The Port has very ambitious goals to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions from port operations — we need to cut port-related emissions in half by 2030 and become fully carbon neutral by 2050 — we can’t achieve this without businesses like Lineage making commitments to sustainability and their energy investments.” 

 At their Seattle port location, Lineage Logistics ensures beef, chicken, and seafood are reliably maintained through import to storage to delivery. In 2022, they oversaw $60 million in seafood offloads at this location alone. Lineage also made three major investments to save energy in its cold storage facilities and operations:  

1. Adding LED lighting with automatic sensors  
2. Installing new rail doors and high-speed doors on cold storage areas to reduce energy loss from freezers that maintain a -15F temperature 
3. Updating new variable frequency compressors and evaporators that adjust for demand instead of running 24/7 

In total, these updates save 1.2 million kilowatt hours per year — which is equivalent to the energy use of over 100 households every year.  

It wasn’t always easy though. The campus is relatively old and included an 80-year-old refrigeration system. Switching over new piping and updating was a bit of a challenge. In the end though, faster and automatic refrigerator doors and automatic lighting makes their day-to-day operations a little more seamless and a lot better for the environment.  

“We take seriously our great responsibility to help lead the world into a more sustainable, equitable future,” said Chris Thurston, Director of Energy and Sustainability at Lineage Logistics. “We couldn’t be more proud of our team or appreciative that these incredible efforts have been recognized by the Port of Seattle. We thank them for their long-standing and important partnership, and we look forward to collaborating in the years to come as we work to create a more sustainable future.”