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HP Hood Joins the EPA SmartWay Transport Partnership

FoodProcessing.com
04/29/2009

HP Hood has joined the SmartWaySM Transport Partnership. SmartWay, a collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the freight industry, was designed to increase energy efficiency while reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution.

SmartWay has a goal of reducing 33 to 66 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and up to 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide per year by 2012. Hood will help reach this goal by improving the environmental performance of its freight operations. Already, Hood has made a five percent improvement on fuel economy by reducing vehicle speed; enabling automatic idle shutdown; installing super-wide tires on trucks in its transportation fleet; installing electrical plug-ins on refrigeration units; and using curtains in the rear of refrigeration trucks to reduce fuel consumption. Hood’s Fleet Management representatives will continue to research ways to reduce the company’s carbon footprint by continuing to work closely with the SmartWay Transport Partnership.

David Crowley, Senior Environmental Health and Safety Director of HP Hood, serves on the Dairy Management, Inc. (DMI) Carbon Council team, also known as E-Smart. This work group is focused on sustainability measures for truck transport in the dairy industry. The group’s charter was established to encourage dairy operators to join SmartWay, and Hood has made this a priority as a means to encourage other dairy firms to follow suit.