2Sustain

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…)

Below is an excerpt from a speech by Wal Mart CEO Lee Scott at a recent conference for Wal Mart suppliers. In case you missed it have a look below – very interesting comments, particularly in the context of our discussion here on the meaning of sustainability.

In my opinion Wal Mart is well on their way to achieving something that most companies have found somewhat elusive to date: not only talking the talk, but walking the walk. While it remains to be seen if Wal Mart can execute on their lofty goals around reduced energy usage, less wasteful packaging, reduced toxicity, energy efficient stores, etc, I would say they are off to an admirable start. They are even doing things like working with Act Now (Adam Werbach’s sustainability consulting firm) to educate the 1.3 million Wal Mart employees on what they can do to improve sustainability in their own lives.

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