AMERICOLD
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
americold.com | Global

Adding, quite literally, to its reputation as the world’s largest cold storage outfit, this Atlanta-based company is constructing a 150,000-square-foot facility in Portland, Maine. Scheduled to open in 2017, it’s been called a “state-of-the–art showpiece” by Americold President Fred Boehler, who says it will “leverage our world-class design, build and operate expertise to create a world-class facility.” The company certainly has experience doing such: Americold has more than 175 warehouses in six countries boasting more than 1 billion cubic feet of storage.

CHALLENGER
HQ: Ontario, Canada
challenger.com | North America

Challenger believes limiting its environmental impact is not just being better on the road but should extend to every aspect of doing business. The company recycles just about everything in sight, including utilizing the engine oil of power units to heat maintenance facilities and using captured rain water and snow melt in its wash bays. It has gone all-in on the Healthy Trucker program, believing alert drivers are more efficient. Mario Da Silva, Challenger’s director of Corporate Services, says more than 400 drivers bring weights and bikes on the road to stay in shape. “It works for those employees who want [to get healthy],” says Da Silva, who surmised the program benefits Challenger by “getting employees involved and celebrating wins.”

DUPRé LOGISTICS
HQ: Lafayette, Louisiana
duprelogistics.com | Domestic

The Dupré Logistics fleet operates on fuel-efficient specifications with a top speed of 62 mph and utilizes fuel-efficient tires as part of an overall fuel conservation and emissions reduction strategy. The company relies on Omnitracs and Green Road technologies to monitor safety and fuel economy in support of continuous improvement. Additionally, Dupré’s participation in the Trucking Alliance, American Trucking Association and National Tank Truck Carriers provides the opportunity to be part of the policy and procedure conversations nationally. In 2015, the EPA gave Dupré a SmartWay Excellence Award for ranking in the best performance range for freight carbon efficiency.

HUB GROUP
HQ: Downers Grove, Illinois
hubgroup.com | North America

Hub walks and talks Green whether it’s at home—its Oak Brook, Illinois, headquarters has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council for its environmental and human health performance—or on the road, where just one of the multimodal giant’s double-stack trains carries as much product as 300 trucks, making them four-times as fuel efficient. David P. Yeager, Hub Group chairman and CEO, says his company strives to “improve the planet each day, from reducing carbon emissions and saving fuel through our intermodal transportation solutions to employing sustainable practices at our headquarters,” while also encouraging its carrier network, shippers and partners to commit to SmartWay goals that are both fuel-efficient and money saving.

J.B. HUNT
HQ: Lowell, Arkansas
jbhunt.com | North America

Long an industry leader in innovative and cost-effective sustainable solutions, from a reduction in empty miles and idling to the use of biodiesel and installation of aerodynamic body moldings on tractors, it’s not surprising that J.B. Hunt is annually recognized by the EPA with its SmartWay Excellence Award. The company recently developed its Cool Transport service offering carbon-neutral transportation services and was singled out by Chris Grundler, director of the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, as “proof that large companies can be successful, have great customer relations and a national footprint all while taking care of the environment.” Grundler added that “sustainable is profitable and J.B. Hunt employees exemplify that notion every day.”

OLD DOMINION freight line
HQ: Thomasville, North Carolina
odfl.com | Global

Old Dominion offers another example that profitability and responsibility can not only coexist but feed each other. Its sustainability initiatives include an emphasis on efficient driver training programs enhanced by on-board telematics, wide-based tires, automatic tire inflation and longer combination vehicles, which have combined to reduce the company’s annual fuel consumption more than 6 percent—a savings passed on to customers. The company also reduced the amount of produced CO2 so much as to be equivalent to removing about 12,000 cars from the road. Perhaps most impressive, it has done this while providing the requisite service to be a multi-time “Carrier of the Year” by the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council.

RUAN
HQ: Des Moines, Iowa
ruan.com | North America

This Midwestern stalwart was founded on the view that a business not only serves the commercial interests of the community but the community itself. Witness the fact that founder John Ruan endowed the World Food Prize with millions of dollars to ensure it would carry on and that under his son, John Ruan III, green measures are seen as not just efficient and cost effective but a “moral imperative.” That imperative dates far back. In the 1980s, for instance, the company helped develop the first truck capable of traveling 1 million miles without major repairs, while also working on such innovations as cleaner-burning fuel and lighter-weight equipment.

SCHNEIDER
HQ: Green Bay, Wisconsin
schneider.com | North America

Schneider has never been afraid to make the hard decisions that were right for business. The company got its start in 1935 when founder Al Schneider sold the family car to buy its first truck, so it’s not uncharacteristic that it hitched itself to such sustainable measures as energy conservation and freight consolidation back in the 1970s when Green was just a color. Today, this carrier giant annually saves more than 26 million gallons of fuel and reduces its carbon dioxide emissions by more than 300,000 tons. By voluntarily slowing its fleet to 60 mph it saves an additional 3.6 million gallons of diesel fuel.

TOLL GROUP
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
tollgroup.com | Global

When announcing that it had set its sights on becoming “cleaner and greener,” Toll Group officials said that environmental sustainability was a “core corporate responsibility and that achieving it was not only smart but required “Smarter” action. Included in the company’s “Smarter Green Initiatives” are driving rules, fuel efficiency and energy measures. Its “Smarter Planning” calls for optimal sourcing to minimize emissions, packaging initiatives to reduce weight and volume and delivery optimization—e.g. improved vehicle capacity and streamlining networks and routes.

VERST GROUP LOGISTICS
HQ: Walton, Kentucky
verstgroup.com | Domestic

When company founder Bill Verst passed away in June this year at the age of 85, Verst CEO Paul Verst called his father “my hero, my friend, my mentor.” And indeed, Bill Verst’s drive to serve responsibly—he was a councilman, marshal, police chief and judge in Wilder, Kentucky—permeates his company. It has a program to recycle scrap plastic containers and corrugated materials that would otherwise end up in landfills, and also developed a method to reclaim the waste in the recycling process with onsite grinding and baling, and ships the captured material directly to end users or re-claimers to be made into new bottles and packaging. The company has a long-term goal of achieving total recyclability of all scrap material.