We’ve been talking about sustainability a lot recently, and for good reason, the time to act is now. And of course, we’re not the only ones who think so. Supply & Demand Chain Executive has been awarding sustainability initiatives since 2008, when they recognized that "green" and "sustainability" had become new watchwords for the supply chain. They knew, even 13 years ago, that regardless of one’s feelings on topics like global warming and fair trade, more and more companies were beginning to incorporate green goals into their corporate social responsibility programs. Their panel selected companies that stood out for their commitment to incorporating sustainability objectives into their own supply chains or to enabling sustainability in their customers' supply chain.

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The transportation industry’s reliance on fossil fuels to power vehicles and other vessels has put it on a collision course with regulators seeking to slow climate change related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. FreightWaves and Commercial Fleet data recently estimated that one truck has the same carbon footprint as 14 people/year: 223 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Freight alone accounts for more than 7% of global GHG emissions.

To date, many attempts have been made to utilize technology to eliminate empty miles from the trucking industry, but these attempts have been primarily focused on market-price based automated matching of individual point-to-point spot loads, not on overall network efficiency. Digital and traditional brokers, as well as various Digitized Freight Models, do not fundamentally make truckload transportation more efficient with lower empty miles and GHG emissions.

When you consider that 25-30 percent of the freight miles leading to these emissions empty miles, it’s evident that it time for a change. SemiCab is making that change, and we’ve been recognized for our efforts. Supply & Demand Chain Executive, the only publication covering the entire global supply chain, named SemiCab to its 2021 Green Supply Chain award, which recognizes companies that prioritize sustainability to be a core part of its supply chain strategy.

We’re honored to be included among some industry all-stars, like:

• Johnson & Johnson, who blend heart, science, and ingenuity to improve health for all of humanity. They have taken sustained, long-term action to reduce their GHG emissions while collaborating with like-minded partners to advance solutions at the intersection of human health and environmental health. They plan to source 100% of their electricity needs from renewable sources by 2025, and to achieve carbon neutrality for their operations by 2030.
• enVista, who has been recognized by SDCE’s Green Supply Chain Award for eight years in a row. Their dedication to green initiatives is evident in how they continually identify and implement new and innovative ways to reduce their carbon footprint by pushing both their own and their clients’ sustainability initiatives forward. How? By providing Global Carbon Emissions reporting for shippers that provides them with actionable steps they can take to do their part.
• Orbis, an international leader in reusable packaging who propel the industry into improved sustainability by providing its customers with a wide range of reusable packaging for use along the supply chain, like pallets, totes, racks, containers, dunnage and bulk systems. Their dedication doesn’t stop there as they also recover, recycle and reprocess single-use plastic waste found near coastlines into reusable plastic packaging solutions for the supply chain. In fact, they are dverting roughly 1 million pounds of single-use plastic waste from the world’s oceans, thus preventing an additional 1 million pounds of single-use plastic from becoming environmental waste.

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All of this year’s winners are inspiring the industry to do better. To learn more, you can view the full press release here. Better yet, join our mission of eliminating empty miles by joining our platform. Together, we can eliminate the addition of 30 million metric tons of CO2 to the environment, and fundamentally transform the way the industry has operated for decades.