2Sustain

Earlier this month, PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay North America announced the addition of ten new trucks to its growing all-electric fleet – a move that pushes the company closer to its goal of becoming the most fuel-efficient commercial fleet in the country.

Frito-Lay is working with Smith Electric Vehicles, the nation’s top manufacturer of battery-electric commercial trucks and a leader in the development of commercial electric trucks designed to operate at peak effectiveness in urban environments. All told, Frito-Lay says it plans to deploy 176 all-electric vehicles in the US and Canada this year.

Some benefits of these trucks include: (more…)

Last week, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced the Nissan Green Program 2016 (NGP 2016), a new six-year environmental plan that will help the company reduce its carbon footprint, shift to renewable energy and increase the diversity of resources it uses.

By the end of fiscal year 2016, the company wants to be a leader in: (more…)

Late last month, UPS released the latest edition of its annual sustainability report, and once again, the company has managed to reduce the amount of fuel it’s using to deliver each package in the United States.

Interestingly, the company’s US package volume rose 1.8 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, and yet UPS reduced the amount of fuel consumed per package by 3.3 percent. The company attributed the improvement to:

• deploying the right vehicle on the right routes,
• using technology to minimize the miles driven and
• focusing on how behavior can affect fuel use.

All told, technology has enabled UPS to avoid driving more than 63.5 million miles in 2010 with an associated emissions avoidance of 68,000 metric tonnes. As remarkable as it sounds, UPS estimates that distance is the equivalent of 251,987 trips to the International Space Station.

How, exactly, has the company used technology to reduce fuel consumption? According to a press release, UPS has specifically improved: (more…)

Meeting new 2025 CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards will require significant materials innovation, according to a recent survey conducted by WardsAuto and DuPont Automotive in late July.

The survey polled more than 1,000 subscribers to the industry publication WardsAuto and was conducted just before the Obama administration’s originally proposed 2025 fleet average of 56.2 mpg (4.1 L/100 km) was negotiated to 54.5 mpg (4.3 L/100 km).

Among the key findings: (more…)

Late last month, UPS released the latest annual update of its corporate sustainability report and announced an ambitious goal: The company wants to improve the miles per gallon (MPG) performance of its entire US package delivery fleet (some 60,000 vehicles) by 20 percent between 2000 and 2020.

UPS has already made progress in this area. Between 2000 and 2009, the company increased the MPG of its US ground fleet by 10 percent. That means that in 2009, UPS drivers logged 77.3 million more miles than in 2000, yet fuel consumption decreased by 3.2 million gallons.

The company uses a variety of approaches to improve fuel efficiency level, including: (more…)