TC&W Becomes ‘SmartWay’ Partner
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
TC&W—which hauls more than $1 billion of customer products each year through south central Minnesota—is among the more than 3,000 SmartWay Transport Partnership program partners, including railroads, truck, air and barge carriers, as well as shipper, logistics and multimodal companies.
Twin Cities & Western Railroad Co. (TC&W) has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay® Transport Partnership program.
TC&W—which hauls more than $1 billion of customer products each year through south central Minnesota—is among the more than 3,000 program partners, including railroads, truck, air and barge carriers, as well as shipper, logistics and multimodal companies.
EPA developed the SmartWay program in early 2003 with charter partners represented by industry stakeholders, environmental groups, American Trucking Associations, and Business for Social Responsibility. The program launched in 2004 to help “companies and organizations achieve their freight supply chain sustainability goals by providing credible tools, data and standards—at no cost—for measuring, benchmarking and improving environmental performance,” according to EPA. Partner carriers, like railroads, submit their efficiency and air quality data to EPA annually, and it is aggregated and divided into five ranked performance ranges for each freight mode and carrier category, according to the agency.
TC&W noted that it will “contribute to the Partnership’s savings of 312 million barrels of oil, $41.8 billion on fuel costs, 133 metric tons of CO2, 2.6 million tons of NOx, and 109 million tons of PM.”
“TC&W has been measuring fuel consumption per ton-mile moved for more than 10 years, and emissions are reduced with fewer gallons consumed,” TC&W President and CEO Mark Wegner said.
