Only a small portion of dairy fleets are participants in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay Program, but a relatively new group aims to change that. E-Smart, a project that unites transportation experts to address challenges specific to dairy transport, wants to get these fleets on board to help cut the industry’s transportation carbon dioxide emissions by 165,000 metric tons annually, potentially saving 16.5 million gallons of diesel fuel. At an assumed cost of $3.50 per gallon, this savings is equivalent to $57.7 million. Among the options for reducing the dairy industry’s carbon footprint are retrofitting equipment with aerodynamic devices, using curtains which help maintain temperatures inside trailers and automatic idle shutdown systems.

For many in trucking, EPA’s SmartWay is becoming a fact of life. But dairy fleets, which can run the gamut from single-truck operations to thousands of vehicles, represent just a small portion of SmartWay fleets. That is beginning to change, however.

The E-Smart (Environmentally Sustainable Methods for Achieving Responsible Transportation) initiative launched by Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy has become a clearinghouse of sorts for dairy fleets of all sizes to gather information about SmartWay and other best practices to make their operations more environmentally sound.

“The overall character and purpose of E-Smart was to encourage dairy fleets to [participate] in SmartWay,” David Crowley, senior environmental health & safety director of HP Hood, told Fleet Owner.

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