In September, Coca-Cola added six all-electric trucks to its fleet of more than 700 alternative fuel vehicles in North America. This spring United Parcel Service, with a green fleet of more than 2,300 vehicles, began its tryout of a lightweight delivery van clad in rugged ABS plastic that’s expected to boost fuel efficiency by 40 percent.
“We’re often accused of being delusional or pie-in-the-sky, but here are two organizations that are doing what we’d love to see everybody doing,” said Ned Harvey, the Rocky Mountain Institute‘s chief operating officer, at the BSR Conference in San Francisco.
RMI’s work in the national push for greener trucking is part of the think-and-do tank’s broader efforts for “Reinventing Fire,” the organization’s name for its vision to wean the U.S. off coal, oil and nuclear power by 2050.
BSR brought together Harvey and sustainability experts from UPS and Coca-Cola to talk about fuel efficiency, reducing emissions and the future of energy in transportation
Coca-Cola and UPS are major players in the drive toward greener transport. Both are members of President Obama’s new National Clean Fleets Partnership — UPS is a charter member and Coca-Cola joined this summer. Both have large and growing green fleets.
Coca-Cola’s efforts are part of a sustainability strategy that includes robust initiatives on water management, greening refrigeration, developing eco-friendly bottles and recycling — work that tends to get more headlines than fuel efficiency initiatives. Nevertheless, the company’s green fleet of heavy-duty hybrid and alternative fuel trucks is the largest in North America, said Bryan Jacob, the company’s director of energy management and climate protection. By the end of the year, the fleet will exceed 750 vehicles.
At UPS, the quest for greater fuel efficiency is core to the business and informs every aspect of the company, said Scott Wicker, vice president of corporate plant engineering and chief sustainability officer.
“We’re always searching for ways to find improvement,” Wicker said. “What we’re trying to do is future-proof our business.”
UPS operates more than 100,000 vehicles for delivery and hauling as well as the 10th largest airline. It pioneered route efficiency tactics that include no left turns, developed exacting logistics management using telematics and set up carbon-neutral shipping and responsible packaging programs. And now, Wicker said, UPS is exploring whether taking on the distribution tasks of firms and providing logistics as a service will pencil out on an environmental balance sheet as well as a line of business.