• TPM25 | March 2-5, 2025
  • TPM25
  • March 2-5, 2025 | Long Beach Convention Center

Mary Pollard

Edelman

Executive Director-Sustainability, Social Impact, and Purpose

Mary Pollard, Interim Director, Move to -15 Coalition

Mary has spent 15 years advising major corporates on building trust by taking a leadership position on environmental and societal issues. She leads Edelman’s EMEA Sustainability, Social Impact and Purpose specialist team, which supports clients including DP World, Unilever, MARS, IKEA and Starbucks.

She previously worked at Diageo PLC where she led the company’s work to build reputation through action-oriented campaigns on issues including sustainability, responsibility and inclusion and diversity, often partnering with brands such as Guinness and Johnnie Walker.

In 2023, she helped to launch the Move to -15 Coalition at COP28 and is now acting as Interim Director for the organization, which aims to create an international alliance of committed partners that will transform the global logistics landscape, cut carbon emissions, save energy, and lower costs by changing the temperature that frozen food is stored and transported at.

Sessions With Mary Pollard

Wednesday, 6 March

  • 11:55am - 12:40pm (PST) / 06/mar/2024 07:55 pm - 06/mar/2024 08:40 pm

    TPM Cold Chain: The Join the Move to -15C Initiative — Decarbonizing Refrigerated Shipping

    A flurry of activity around container shipping decarbonization is under way, with private sector initiatives occurring alongside ambitious IMO targets to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. On the industry side, 40% of new ships on the carrier orderbook are for vessels capable of running on green fuels, according to industry analyst Alphaliner. Forwarders, meanwhile, are offering zero-carbon products to a growing number of customers, and a coalition of large shippers is pooling 600,000 TEUs of volume over three years is pooling 600,000 TEUs of volume over three years, acting similarly to a traditional shippers’ association and pledging to purchase only ocean freight services powered by scalable zero-carbon fuels by 2040. Most recently, a coalition of cold chain stakeholders in late 2024 announced at COP28 in Dubai the formation of the Join the -15ºC Initiative with a goal of lowering frozen food temperatures to dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Most frozen food has been transported and stored at -18ºC, a standard established 93 years ago that hasn’t changed. New research shows that changing the standard by just 3 degrees Celsius would have a dramatic impact on environmentally damaging emissions. According to the research, going to -15ºC standard would:

    • Save 17.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, the equivalent annual emissions of 3.8 million gasoline-powered automobiles.

    • Create energy savings or approximately 25 terawatt-hours, equivalent to more than 8.6% of the UK’s annual energy consumption.

    • Cut supply chain costs by at least 5% and up to 12%.

    This session, which will bring to a close the inaugural TPM Cold Chain event, will analyze these important developments, with a focus on the -15 ºC initiative and its revelatory impact on refrigerated shippers and their service providers. 

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