Stonyfield Farm Inc., based in Londonderry, N.H., was one of 37 organizations nationwide honored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for success in cutting carbon dioxide emissions and fuel use in freight operations. Stonyfield Farm was awarded a 2009 “SmartWay Excellence Award.”
Stonyfield is among more than 2000 SmartWay Transport Partners setting an example in the transportation industry for addressing climate change by using clean vehicle technologies, managing freight logistics more effectively, and promoting the benefits of SmartWay to peers and customers.
Stonyfield, the world’s leading organic yogurt maker, joined SmartWay in 2008 as a shipper partner, having established several programs to significantly reduce the company’s transportation carbon footprint. Stonyfield educated all contracted truck carriers about fuel-saving SmartWay strategies, and provided incentives to join the program. Now Stonyfield ships 100 percent of its freight using more efficient SmartWay carriers.
“This award recognizes the hard work of a team dedicated to reducing our carbon footprint, and continuing to find ways to save money and the planet,” says Stonyfield Farm President and “CE-Yo” Gary Hirshberg. “As a yogurt on a mission, Stonyfield has continually worked toward minimizing our impact, by working smarter, working leaner and working greener.”
Stonyfield also reworked its distribution system to ship more efficiently. By consolidating loads, increasing order lead times, and rerouting, Stonyfield’s New England fleet achieved a 15 percent reduction in 2008 in the number of miles driven empty. By reducing the number of pallets needed for each load, requiring longer trailers and eliminating less-than-full truckloads, Stonyfield reduced the number of truck loads of product shipped by 13 percent between 2007 and 2008. Through these and other efforts, Stonyfield reduced its total annual CO2 emissions by more than 40 percent between 2006 and 2008 while growing its business. This is equivalent to taking 1,700 cars off the road for a year. In doing so Stonyfield also saved $2.5 million in fuel costs in 2007 and 2008 alone.