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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today named Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products a SmartWaySM Excellence Award winner for 2009, recognizing the company for its outstanding environmental performance. The SmartWay Transport Partnership is an innovative collaboration between the EPA and the freight industry designed to increase energy efficiency while significantly reducing air pollution.
“I commend Georgia-Pacific for its leadership in promoting sustainable transportation practices through the SmartWay Transport Partnership,” said Margo T. Oge, director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, EPA. “These actions demonstrate a commitment to a cleaner environment and more secure energy supply.”
Paul Snider, vice president – transportation for Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products, said, “We are proud to be recognized as a major contributor to the EPA’s efforts to improve energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact in the transportation sector. These efforts are aligned with Georgia-Pacific’s ongoing commitment to minimize our impact while effectively serving our customers and consumers.”
Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products joined the SmartWay Transport Partnership in 2008. Some of the highlights in energy efficiency, fuel savings and environmental impact that Georgia-Pacific has achieved since joining the program include:
• Increasing intermodal shipping by 39 percent in 2008 vs. 2007, reducing fuel consumption by 2.6 million gallons.
• Initiating an idle reduction policy at its 12 distribution centers, asking drivers to turn off their engines while waiting to be unloaded/loaded. According to SmartWay, idling truck engines use about one gallon of fuel per hour.
• Using special software to help better pack product loads, gaining useable space in the trailer and thus reducing the number of trucks on the road.
• Reducing the total miles traveled from manufacturing point to customer delivery, which equaled about four million miles in 2008.
• Reducing deadhead (trucks returning empty) by 10 percent by better management of the transportation system and cooperation of contract carriers.
About SmartWay
SmartWay was introduced by EPA (epa.gov) and a select group of fifteen shipping and business leaders in 2004 as an innovative, market-based partnership to reduce fuel use, greenhouse gas emissions, and air pollutants from the freight sector. Today, more than 2200 businesses and organizations have joined the Partnership, including companies of all sizes, from Fortune 500 companies to family-owned businesses, each working to improve their environmental performance. For more information about SmartWay call (734) 214-4767
About Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products
Headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia-Pacific (gppro.com) is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of building products, tissue, packaging, paper, cellulose and related chemicals. The company employs approximately 50,000 people at more than 300 locations in North America, South America and Europe. The familiar consumer tissue brands of Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP include Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Sparkle®, Soft 'n Gentle®, Mardi Gras®, So-Dri® and Vanity Fair®. Dixie Consumer Products LLC, a Georgia-Pacific company, manufactures the Dixie® brand of tabletop products. Georgia-Pacific’s Commercial business features such well-known product brands as enMotion®, Compact®, EasyNap®, Brawny®, and Pacific Garden®.
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