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Lehigh Hanson, a core South Jersey Port Corporation tenant/partner, and aggressive ally in battling climate change, is working hard to reduce its environmental footprint and is committed to becoming carbon neutral.

“The climate is changing in ways that impact our planet and contribute to rising temperatures, rising seas, flooding, and droughts,” said Lusmerlin Lantigua, Plant Manager of the Lehigh Hanson slag grinding facility in Camden. “We all must strive to reduce our energy use, conserve water, and protect our natural resources. As a company, we are committed to achieving net zero emissions. ”

HeidelbergCement, the global parent company of Lehigh Hanson, is one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of building materials and solutions, with leading market positions in aggregates, cement, and ready-mixed concrete. As a forerunner on the path to carbon neutrality, HeidelbergCement crafts material solutions for the future.

As part of its commitment to be a worldwide leader, the company has increased its focus on sustainable products, driving the circular economy through an emphasis on recycling and recycled products and working to decarbonize the industry.

“Lehigh Hanson has been a good business partner in creating good paying jobs through its operations and importing and exporting millions of tons of product to support the region’s infrastructure needs and it is admirably, a leading ally in the port’s commitment to becoming, with great urgency, a better neighbor by operating cleaner and greener,” said Andy Saporito, CEO and Executive Director of SJPC. Saporito noted that SJPC is in the process of purchasing $6.6 million worth of electric cargo handling equipment and installing an electric charging station at its Balzano Marine Terminal.

Lehigh Hanson’s carbon-neutral strategy goes beyond reducing the carbon footprint of its plant. It also focuses on the cement, concrete, and other construction materials it produces. “Cement is the key ingredient in concrete, the most widely used building material in the world,” explained Lantigua, manager of the Lehigh Hanson plant located at SJPC’s Broadway Marine Terminal in Camden. “Our slag cement significantly lowers the environmental impact of concrete.”

Slag cement is 1.2 times stronger than Portland Cement and, more importantly, emits six to fifteen times less carbon into the air than regular Portland Cement. The slag is the waste from making steel and is repurposed to make stronger concrete to build dams, bridges, highways, airports, and buildings which in turn will reduce overall emissions at upwards of fifteen times.

The alchemy in the Lehigh Hanson strategy is converting a waste product to reduce carbon emissions, a win-win for the environment. With two slag cement plants in North America, they are the market leader for slag cement.

With a capacity for 600,000 tons annually, Lehigh Hanson’s highly efficient Camden plant at Broadway Marine Terminal is 90% automated and employs fourteen full-time employees, not including the stevedores, truck drivers, and other supporting workers. It imports steel slag from Japan and, by barge and truck, supplies its slag cement product for the construction industry throughout the mid-Atlantic, from Virginia to upstate New York.

Supply chain discussions are often dominated by global corporate giants, but the world’s supply chain depends on thousands of local small companies like Page Lyons’s Tri-State Bulk Handling to be the ball bearings that make the global trade machine run smoothly.

“America is built on small business and so is the world’s supply chain,” said Lyons whose family-owned-and-run stevedoring companies have moved tens of millions of tons of bulk cargo at the South Jersey Port Corporation’s marine terminals in Camden.

“Page is a fantastic partner who we, at the port, and his customers trust to get the job done,” said Andy Saporito, Executive Director and CEO of the South Jersey Port Corporation. “He is successful because he is customer-focused and handles cargo the way the customer wants: fast, safe, and efficient. And, by the way, he is a people person which is important in our industry where personal relationships are the coin of the realm.”

An affable man with a quick wit and an appetite for prudent risks, Lyons is a first-generation port man pro, born in the steel town of Weirton, West Virginia. Graduating in 1972 from Bethany College, a small Christian liberal arts college in his native state, he moved with his college sweetheart to Malvern, Pennsylvania, where they started a family. He spent the next nine years bouncing from job to job until his gig as the charming tennis pro at a local club landed him a job as manager of bulk sales and operations at Lavino Shipping Company.

A quick learner with a gnawing ambition to branch out on his own, three years later, Lyons took the biggest risk of his life. At age 37, he started his own stevedoring company, Tri-State Bulk Handling, and the clients he developed at Lavino followed him to South Jersey Port’s marine terminals in Camden, New Jersey, which is a national leader in bulk and breakbulk cargo. Nine years later, he would take another risk and create Broadway Conveyor Corporation to improve the efficiencies of his operations.

“It’s all about relationships in this industry and the trust you build,” said Lyons. “You maintain clients by delivering beyond what is expected and by developing trust with everyone who is moving that cargo, from truckers to machine operators, from the terminal management to the ship’s crew. There are robust discussions and strong opinions that are resolved by relationships. You help them to be successful, they help you be successful. It’s mutual success.”

A case in point is the contract that Lyons has today with Lehigh Hanson Cement to move 600,000 tons of bulk slag cement annually. From 1984 to 1999, Lyons handled iron ore, coal, pet coke, sand, and magnesite on lease parcels at SJPC’s port terminals in Camden. He always evolved with the changing times and changing market needs. In 1999, the South Jersey Port Corporation wanted to lease Lyons’ parcel to Saint Lawrence Cement (the predecessor of Lehigh Hanson). Lyons gave up his leases as part of the deal to land St. Lawrence Cement which included significant capital investments along the pier and a new crane and economic development in Camden. Saint Lawrence gave Tri-State a 10-year contract and it has been renewed by multiple owners since – a testament to the service his company provides.

To better serve his customers, he created the Broadway Conveyor Corporation and invested $5 million to a state-of-the-art conveyor system to move the granular materials efficiently. With the exception of a one-hour “hiccup,” the Lyons’ team has fed the cement manufacturing plant for 23 years without shutting it down. The final loading of the barges and trucks from the silos is completely automated through an underground system to prevent dust. Additionally, Lyons’ team at the Balzano Marine Terminal helps feed 100,000 tons of gypsum annually to the Georgia Pacific operations.

Lyons has a strong commitment to his operation’s host city, Camden. Most of his fourteen employees are city residents. He even invested in a local restaurant but equally important is his sensitivity to the impact of his operations on the community. “We are always working to be a good neighbor,” he said.

All of Tri-State’s bulk-moving equipment are powered by Tier 4 diesels, the Environmental Protection Agency’s strictest emissions requirement for off-highway diesel engines. “In time, we’ll move to an electric fleet to further reduce our carbon footprint” Lyons predicted.

(September 2022) The Board of Directors of the South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) strengthened its management team with the recent appointments of Lisa M. McLaughlin as Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer and August E. (Gus) Knestaut as Director of Legal and Regulatory Affairs.

“These are two excellent, highly-experienced and accomplished professionals who now have responsibility for some of the most critical aspects of the SJPC’s legal, regulatory and financial operations,” said Andy Saporito, the ports’ Executive Director and CEO. “They have the skills and, just as importantly, the personalities and work ethic that synchs well with the executive leadership team we have built over the past two years.”

McLaughlin is a Certified Public Accountant with an MBA from Georgian Court College who served as Chief Financial Officer for Monmouth County Ocean Hospital Service Corporation. She has decades of experience in budgeting, finance, auditing, and billing and collections.

McLaughlin lives in Seaside Park, N.J., and graduated from Rowan University with a Bachelor of Science degree. She served on the adjunct faculty of and taught Federal Income Tax Accounting at Ocean County College.

Knestaut has decades of experience as a lawyer and manager, both in the private and public sectors. He has successfully navigated the complexities of governmental regulations at local, county, state, and federal levels.

Knestaut previously served as First Undersheriff to the Gloucester County Sheriff and Assistant Gloucester County Counsel. A graduate of Widener University Law School, he has been admitted to the bar in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court, and the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. He served as solicitor or prosecutor for numerous municipal-level entities. Born in Woodbury, N.J., he grew up in Paulsboro and graduated from Paulsboro High School (Class of 1984). He and his wife, Angela and their two children (Cassandra and Matthew) live in West Deptford, N.J.

The South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) was created in 1968 to operate marine shipping terminals in the South Jersey Port District, consisting of seven counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Mercer, and Cape May. SJPC is a national leader in bulk and breakbulk cargo, shipping and receiving to and from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. SJPC’s four international seaport facilities in South Jersey handle more than four million tons of bulk, breakbulk, and containerized cargoes annually.

The South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) has deployed its first all-electric terminal tractor, the vanguard of 27 cargo-handling “green machines” which are funded by a $6.6 million grant from Governor Phil Murphy’s Administration. It’s all part of the Governor’s $100 million initiative to grow the green economy by creating new jobs while battling climate change by turning to clean energy alternatives and making New Jersey fully powered by clean energy by 2050.

“As we work determinedly to safeguard New Jersey against the impacts of climate change, we must electrify not just light-duty vehicles, but the medium- and heavy-duty tractors and equipment upon which our thriving logistics industry depends,” said Governor Murphy. “There is no better place to continue our efforts than at the South Jersey Port Corporation, which is contributing to our state’s national reputation as an offshore wind hub. Here in South Jersey, we’re proving that transitioning to clean energy both complements and catalyzes the growth of new industries and the generation of good-paying jobs.”

“Creating family-sustaining jobs is one of our prime objectives,” said SJPC Executive Director & CEO Andrew Saporito. “But, as Governor Murphy warns us, there will be no jobs if we destroy our planet and communities in the process. Jobs are inextricably connected to how we protect our environment and shrink our carbon footprint to zero. We strive to be a better neighbor in the communities we serve by making our operations cleaner and greener while also building the green economy on initiatives such as offshore wind development.”

The governor is funding his “green machine” initiative by leveraging proceeds from the reentry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and money from the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Fund. In addition, New Jersey and private corporations are investing a billion dollars to build port facilities and infrastructure to make New Jersey the epicenter of the job-rich $100 Billion offshore wind energy industry.

“This is another important step in the Murphy Administration’s commitment to improve air quality in communities overburdened by air pollution and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles that fuel climate change across New Jersey,” Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said.

With this $6.6 million investment, SJPC will replace twenty-seven pieces of older gasoline and diesel forklifts and cargo handling equipment with new electric-powered units and associated charging stations. SJPC aims to systematically convert all of its energy-consuming assets to zero-carbon within the next decade as suitable replacement equipment becomes commercially available.

From steps as simple as planting trees in its host cities to updating warehouse lighting to LED to investing millions in improving direct ship to rail access, SJPC has been working aggressively to reduce its carbon footprint. Instead of retrofitting its vehicles – it can afford to convert its fleet from carbon fuels to electric.

SJPC has become the cornerstone of New Jersey’s growing Green Energy Economy. Its unparalleled location combined with available land and warehouse space and an integrated network of highway, rail, and marine facilities provide the infrastructure to support offshore wind energy investments along the Atlantic Coast. It’s Paulsboro Marine Terminal (PMT) has already emerged as the prime manufacturing site for components of offshore wind turbines.