Midwest retailer Meijer says it has reduced its carbon footprint by 58 percent since it first began implementing the EPA’s 2010 near-zero emissions standards three years ago and it now operates what it says is one of the largest all-clean diesel fleets in North America.
The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer says its fleet was the first in North America to implement the federal emissions standards that include near-zero emissions technology. Today the supermarket chain’s fleet of 170 semi-trucks meets or exceeds those stringent requirements, the company says.
Since 2010, the Meijer fleet has realized:
Additionally, the company says 37 of the trucks already meet the EPA’s 2014 clean emissions standards.
The Meijer fleet is comprised of 170 Freightliner Cascadia trucks equipped with fuel efficient, reduced-emissions engines. They use selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology that treats nitrogen oxides emissions downstream in the exhaust so the engine can be tuned to run more efficiently and economically. SCR technology consists of an after-treatment catalyst system that allows engine exhaust to be treated with a non-hazardous fluid known as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) that reduces harmful nitrogen oxides into simple nitrogen and water.
Despite its fleet’s emissions-cutting efforts, Meijer — along with 11 other US supermarkets — continues to use hydroflourocarbons, gaseous compounds used in refrigerants and a major source of greenhouse gas emissions more powerful than carbon dioxide, according to a survey released earlier this month by the Environmental Investigation Agency.
The report finds that AholdUSA, Costco, Delhaize, HEB, Kroger, Meijer, Publix, Safeway, Supervalu, Target, Walmart and Whole Foods have not taken substantial action to begin phasing out HFCs or reduce the amount of HFC emissions leaking from refrigeration systems.
