EPA SmartWay Partners Receive National Recognition for Environmental Accomplishments

This year, 11 companies out of 3,220 partners received the 2015 SmartWay Excellence Award in the shipping and logistics categories.

In recognition of their accomplishments, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced recipients for the 2015 SmartWay Excellence Award, which “honors top shipping, logistics, and carrier company partners for superior environmental performance.” The accolades were well deserved, and the latest example of EPA’s commitment to recognizing companies that achieve win-wins, demonstrating that environmental stewardship and economic success go hand in hand.

EPA’s SmartWay program is a public-private partnership with a primary focus on encouraging more sustainable freight transport. With more than 3,220 SmartWay members nationwide, the program emphasizes measuring environmental performance criteria, such as fuel efficiency and use of cleaner technologies. Membership is voluntary, so businesses choose to make energy-efficient transportation decisions and are then eligible to receive national recognition for achieving high environmental performance.

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SmartWay has an impressive track record of environmental and economic success. Since 2004, the EPA program has saved more than 144.3 million barrels of oil—the equivalent of taking 13 million cars off of the road for an entire year—as well as avoided 43,000 tons of particulate matter emissions, important for both protecting public health and reducing climate pollution. Furthermore, companies affiliated with the SmartWay Program have saved up to $20.6 billion in fuel costs to date, supporting the North American freight industry while lowering costs for the consumer.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) applauds the 177 SmartWay partners in Texas; these freight leaders include prominent names such as AT&T, Dell Inc., PepsiCo, Inc., and RadioShack Corporation, among others. In 2013, AT&T (headquartered in Dallas) became the largest wireless carrier to join the program, and Dell Inc. (headquartered in Round Rock, near Austin) has been a SmartWay member since the program’s inception in 2004.

Recognizing Freight Industry Leaders

An added benefit of the SmartWay program is recognition for high performers with the annual SmartWay Excellence Awards. These are awarded to partners who have shown outstanding efforts in conserving fuel and lowering greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and freight activities in three categories: shippers, logistics providers, and carriers.

This year, 11 companies out of 3,220 partners received the 2015 SmartWay Excellence Award in the shipping and logistics categories. In the carrier category, 39 companies were recognized for their leadership.

• A “shipper” in the SmartWay program is a company that ships freight cargo. Recipients in the shipper category for 2015 included several well-known brands, such as Canon U.S.A., Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Lowe’s Companies, Inc., and Whirlpool Corporation, among others.

• Awardees that display excellence in the “logistics” category are companies that manage or broker freight for shipper clients. These companies are critical to freight transportation, and the SmartWay Excellence Award recipients this year included Armada and Menlow Logistics, Inc.

• In the “carrier” category, EPA recognized 39 companies who are responsible for actually moving the freight via truck or other transport type, such as barge. The carrier category is large because companies often specialize in different types of freight, such as dry van transport, refrigerated transport, or package/parcel transport. Carrier award recipients included Texas-based Frito-Lay, a three-time awardee, as well as two “dray” carriers that are helping improve freight performance around ports, Container Connection and RPM Harbor Services, Inc. (often one of the challenging freight segments because the short distances allow older trucks that typically are more polluting).

These companies were honored at EPA’s Technology Showcase held at the National Vehicle and Fuels Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan in October.

EDF applauds the efforts and leadership of these SmartWay partners, alongside EPA. Kudos to companies that are reducing both climate and health impacts from freight transportation!

Image credit: Flickr/TruckPR