Food Logistics - June 2017

 ...Sustainability continues to be a driving force for nearly every type of business today. For companies in the food and beverage sector, taking an active role in promoting sustainability throughout their operations is crucial considering the urgency to reduce the food chain’s carbon footprint and preserve the already thin profit margins.

Food Logistics’ annual Top Green Providers list offers logistics professionals a guide to the providers, manufacturers and software and technology companies that have found new ways to promote sustainability throughout their operations and those of their customers.

This year’s list consists of transportation providers, 3PLs, cold storage providers, technology companies, pallet manufacturers and many others who have stepped to the front to become the leaders in supporting a more sustainable global food supply chain.

The following are expanded profiles of some of the companies on the 2017 Top Green Provider list:

PLM Trailer Leasing
PLM is committed to helping customers reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a holistic approach in refrigerated transport. With the razor thin margins of food distribution, it is difficult for companies to commit to going green unless there is a quick upside for the conversion. There is much to consider when going green—infrastructure cost enhancements, hybrid unit cost, electricity and diesel cost, safety, warehouse/driver training and carbon footprint output just to name a few. PLM’s approach to helping customers consider the use of hybrid refrigeration units is by walking them through a process of evaluation of existing technologies, personalized fleet life cycle management matrix, and on-site evaluations with results driven through comprehensive modeling tools and data analysis. PLM helps customers to evaluate a true ROI that they can make the decision to go green to reduce their carbon footprint while driving significant cost out of operations.          

PLM uses actual data provided by the customer and from PLM’s own ColdLink® telematics solution that provides information to include fuel burn, diesel usage, electrical usage and distribution behaviors to translate into optimal quantifiable carbon footprint reduction. PLM has a national network of professionals that work with customers locally to deploy the tools and accomplish the field studies to review total operational impact to deliver quantifiable results. They have documented results as much as an 84 percent carbon footprint reduction, with an added benefit of driving out up to 80 percent of the cost of fueling a refrigerated trailer within an operation. PLM helps companies that go green also make green (dollars) while they are working towards their sustainability goals. PLM shows how sustainability pays.                       

In addition, PLM is an active member of EPA’s SmartWay® program that helps companies deploy aerodynamic trailer technologies to qualify for the different levels of certification to drive carbon footprint out of the road miles of the tractor. PLM does go the added step beyond this government program in that they engage the carbon footprint of the diesel engine of the refrigerated trailer by taking a total assessment of the company’s current circumstances, from spec and design, unit operation and hybrid technologies, to help them become more sustainable.  

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