Since e-commerce took a temporary big jump at the beginning of the pandemic, large companies like Amazon and Walmart have raced to obtain distribution points in cities to enable easier same-day and next-day consumer deliveries.
However, the constant traffic has created ongoing clouds of diesel truck exhaust that have an impact on public health. Lawmakers are focusing more on addressing concerns over consumer health impacts. New York is the latest example with a proposal to regulate emissions of warehouses larger than 50,000 square feet.
Historically, it was visible when pollution became too bad and local, state, or federal regulators had to mandate changes. In the mid-20th century, Pittsburgh had the nickname “Smoke City” after a century of heavy pollution and a sky that was dark at all hours. Through local efforts, Pittsburgh saw a 90% decrease in smoke pollution.
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Emissions, though, represent a new type of problem that lawmakers are now trying to address.
In 2021, California passed a new warehouse emissions law adopted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which serves large portions of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties. Warehouses of more than 100,000 square feet would have to "directly reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) and diesel particulate matter (PM) emissions, or to otherwise facilitate emission and exposure reductions of these pollutants in nearby communities."
In 2023, a coalition of more than 60 environmental, labor, community, and academic groups called for a moratorium of up to two years on new warehouse development in Southern California's Inland Empire, demanding in an open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom that the governor declare the market's one billion square foot warehouse sprawl a "public health emergency."
A George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health study last year found an average 20% increase in nitrogen dioxide air pollution for communities near large warehouses.
New York City faces strong problems, according to a Bloomberg report, with 8,000 warehouses across 146 million square feet of space in the close confines of the metropolitan area. The number of e-commerce orders per person in New York is expected to rise 166.8% this year over 2017 levels, according to data Bloomberg received from Jose Holguin-Veras, director of the Center for Infrastructure, Transportation and the Environment at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The New York City Council would give warehouse operators options to flexibly address the need to control emissions. Unfortunately, those options aren’t established. But the steps Southern California has taken offer suggestions, like solar power, filtration systems, an increase in freight shipping on city waterways, and mitigation fees. A similar bill is sitting at the New York state level.
Bruce Linderman, government affairs coordinator at the International Warehouse Logistics Association, told Bloomberg that indirect control through warehouse operators is unfair, as they don’t control the pollution.
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