Novi, Michigan, USA: Lineage Logistics has signed the Climate Pledge and committed to be net-zero carbon by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
The Climate Pledge, co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism, is a cross-sector community of more than 200 companies working together to encourage corporate action and address the climate crisis. By signing the pledge, Lineage has agreed to:
- Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions annually
- Implement decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris Agreement, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies
- Take action to neutralise any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
“Lineage is deeply committed to sustainable operations, and we look forward to joining other forward-looking signatories of the Climate Pledge to work towards its important mission,” said Greg Lehmkuhl, president and chief executive, Lineage.
“Building off of our demonstrated achievements in this space – and with continued emphasis on innovation in logistics optimization, refrigeration system efficiency and renewable energy technologies – I am confident in Lineage’s ability to lead our industry’s charge on decarbonization and encourage others to reduce their impact on our climate.”
Lineage aims to meet the goal of the Climate Pledge through a combination of innovative energy efficiency measures, onsite energy generation and storage, and network-wide standards to minimise and eliminate carbon emissions associated with its daily operations.
“As the world’s largest temperature-controlled warehousing company, Lineage has a responsibility to lead sustainability innovation and progress across the cold chain,” said Chris Thurston,head of renewable energy projects, Lineage.
“In our never-ending pursuit of carbon savings across our facility network, we are constantly developing and deploying new technologies and are excited to share even more as we work towards net-zero operations by 2040,” he said.
Lineage has already begun implementing major initiatives across its network to reduce its carbon footprint. The company previously committed to decreasing its energy intensity by 25% over 10 years starting in 2015 and met the target in just two years.
Additionally, Lineage has committed to installing 85 MW of onsite solar energy capacity by 2025. These plans would place Lineage among Top 5 in the world in on-site solar capacity.
As part of these efforts, Lineage also announced that its Colton, CA facility will be among the first of its kind to generate 100% of its energy consumption on-site thanks to the installation of a3.3MW solar array and 460kW of linear generators.
“Lineage always strives to be responsible leaders in the communities where we live and work, and our commitment to advancing the future of renewable energy at our locations is no exception,” said Chris Thurston, head of renewable energy projects for Lineage.
“Responsibly creating our own energy is an important sustainability milestone, and I am excited to see how this achievement further inspires our commitment to carbon neutrality by 2040.”
Lineage partnered with PowerFlex, a national provider of renewable energy infrastructure, to install the rooftop solar array in Colton – the second largest solar array in the company’s global network of temperature-controlled warehouses. The site has 8,426 individual solar panels that will generate an estimated 5.4m kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually. The Colton array is one of several onsite solar installations that PowerFlex is supporting Lineage’s distribution centres in the USA.
Shane Brennan, chief executive, Cold Chain Federation, said: “So excited to see this, this is the kind of game changing leadership that will benefit the whole of the cold chain. We look forward to working with Lineage Logistics to identify and overcome barriers to achieving this goal, and above all to harness the exciting opportunities of this transition.
“The first job of cold chain is to ensure we preserve as much of the food we produce as possible. In a world where we waste a third of the food we farm, and one that is getting warmer, we must invest in ways to prevent post harvest food loss.
“Preventing loss of food (or any other temperature-sensitive product) is our overriding contribution to combatting climate change. The second, equally important challenge, is to manage our cold chain in ways that uses less fossil fuels in our buildings, our refrigeration systems and our vehicles. It’s a massive challenge and one that no one business, or link in the chain can do.
“It is the Cold Chain Federation’s mission to support our industry in this vital transition, and with companies like Lineage in the lead we can make it happen.”
https://www.theclimatepledge.com/
https://www.lineagelogistics.com/about-us
https://www.coldchainfederation.org.uk/
