Con-way Inc. announced Thursday, July 10, that its three primary operating companies — Con-way Freight, Con-way Truckload and Menlo Worldwide Logistics — received the highest fuel efficiency and environmental performance score for 2007 from the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay Transport Partnership.
The companies each received a Shipper Index Factor (SIF) of 1.25, the highest possible score awarded under the EPA program. The rating signifies that the companies are utilizing the largest number of commercially available fuel savings strategies, while continuing to actively evaluate and consider promising new savings methods and emerging technologies. Higher scores make carriers and logistics companies more attractive to freight shippers and support their carbon emissions reduction strategies. Companies achieving the highest score also are granted exclusive rights to use the trademarked SmartWay logo.
“Our collaboration with the EPA’s SmartWay Transport program is well-aligned with our overall corporate sustainability mission,” says Douglas W. Stotlar, president and chief executive officer of San Mateo, Calif.-based Con-way. “The SmartWay performance model is a sophisticated, proven best practice. Utilizing this program helps us refine our operations and adopt practices that reduce our carbon footprint in measurable, lasting ways. In a carbon-intensive business like ours, conserving fuel and other forms of energy delivers not only sustainability benefits but bottom-line results as well. It makes us a more competitive, attractive business partner for shippers who are pursuing parallel efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their supply chains.”
The SmartWay Transport Partnership is a collaboration between EPA and the freight industry to increase energy efficiency while significantly reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution. EPA launched SmartWay in 2004 to address the environmental and economic challenges surrounding growth in the freight industry. Through EPA’s program, 800 SmartWay trucking and logistics companies commit to measuring and improving the efficiency of their freight operations using the EPA-developed F.L.E.E.T. (Fleet Logistics Energy and Environmental Tracking) Performance Model. Carriers and logistics companies must agree to improve their performance within three years and also must sign the SmartWay Transport Partnership Agreement.
“I applaud Con-way for adopting clean strategies and technologies that reduce energy use and meet their SmartWay environmental commitments,” says Margo T. Oge, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation & Air Quality.
