Manufacturers seek supply chain sustainability, carbon use reductions

Transplace: Efficient strategies help customers and suppliers establish sustainable operations practices.

October 27, 2009

Transplace, a provider of transportation management services and logistics technology solutions, helps manufacturers with sustainability efforts by improving operational efficiency, driving waste out of the supply chain, and enabling customers by helping them establish sustainable operations. The third-party logistics (3PL) provider helps reduce the number of trucks on the road and uses optimization strategies such as efficient routing and consolidation of shipments into multi-stop truckloads. Such efforts decreased fuel costs, empty miles, and emissions, and delivers efficiencies across the supply chain.
Examples include:

SmartWay award winners
EPA announced 2009 SmartWay Excellence Award Winners on Oct. 6; 37 businesses and organizations were honored for outstanding contributions to greater fuel efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved air quality at the 2009 SmartWay Excellence Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, NV, at the American Trucking Associations’ Management conference.

U.S. EPA SmartWay brand identifies products and services that reduce transportation-related emissions.

– Sunny Delight Beverages Company (SDBC): Ellen Iobst, chief sustainability officer and senior vice president, manufacturing and technology for SDBC says, "Sunny Delight Beverages Co. is committed to reducing the carbon footprint of its transportation operations. Transplace has played a key role helping us meet our sustainability goals as well as becoming a [U.S. EPA] SmartWay Transport Partner. In part, with the efforts of its new business unit, Transplace will assist our supplier base as we work together to further improve our sustainable operations and reduce our environmental impact."

– A provider of transportation and logistics information and services, eyefortransport, honored Transplace with its award for Top 3PL in the Sustainability category. "The eyefortransport 3PL Awards are voted on by 3PL customers – the manufacturers and retailers who in large part depend on their 3PLs to help green their supply chains," said Katharine O’Reilly, vice president of research for eyefortransport

– Participation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership: SmartWay recently honored Transplace with an Environmental Excellence Award for the second year in a row. This collaborative program developed by the EPA and the United States freight industry provides tools and information for companies to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution, and promote cleaner, more efficient surface freight transportation systems.

"Transplace understands the importance of a sustainable supply chain and is working hard to be environmentally responsible within our own operations as well as promoting those practices to our customers," said Tom Sanderson, chairman and CEO of Transplace. "Partnering with SmartWay helps equip Transplace with the toolkit needed to assist our customers in making smart business decisions that will have a positive effect on both their company and the environment."

– 80 percent of Transplace alliance carriers are SmartWay Transport Partners. In addition, Transplace has assisted a number of shippers in receiving their SmartWay certification, including USG Corporation, which also received a SmartWay Environmental Excellence Award.

Also read from MBT: Transplace delivers useful blend of transportation software, logistics and consulting services .

– Edited by Mark T. Hoske, electronic products editor, Manufacturing Business Technology , MBT www.mbtmag.com