GOJO Industries Sees Moving from Truck to Rail Lowers GHGs

A Series on Innovating to Create Sustainable Value

Sustainability is embedded within GOJO culture. In fact, sustainability principles have been part of our company since it was founded 70 years ago. Our Purpose-driven commitment to sustainability allows us to innovate to create social, environmental and economic value for all GOJO stakeholders.

In this series of stories, we share with you how we “Innovate to Create Sustainable Value.” These stories highlight initiatives that demonstrate the ways sustainability is integrated into our daily work.

At GOJO, we are dedicated to protecting and replenishing environmental resources, while driving Sustainable Value across our entire value chain through industry-leading approaches. One example is how we changed the way we transport ethanol from our suppliers to our manufacturing facility.

Moving from truck to rail lowers GHGs

There are approximately 420 miles between our ethanol suppliers in Illinois and Indiana and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where the GOJO manufacturing center is located. A tanker trailer making that trip can carry 22 tons of ethanol at a time. While impressive, it pales in comparison to the 100 tons of ethanol a more sustainable rail tanker car can carry—a mode of transportation that’s 10 times more fuel efficient than using tanker trailers. In 2014, GOJO went from using tanker trailers for ethanol transportation to using 95 percent rail freight and 5 percent trucks. Using EPA-established guidelines, we avoided putting nearly two million kilograms of CO2 into the air in 2014 alone—the equivalent of taking 310 cars off the road—leading to an 87 percent reduction in fuel emissions and a more efficient and sustainable transportation solution.

Our approach to transporting materials in new ways, with reduced impacts, is an example of our sustainability commitment in action. 

We invite you to learn more about our sustainability commitment at www.gojo.com/sustainability.