Supply Chain Sustainability at Caterpillar
Caterpillar cuts CO2 emissions in supply chain through sustainable progress
We move thousands of supplies and parts around the world to manufacture and service our equipment during the course of its life cycle. These add up to a significant opportunity to minimize the overall impact of our products' environmental footprint.
At the Caterpillar Ground Transportation Operations Center – Americas (GTOC-A) in Morton, Ill., new freight optimization software has cut our CO2 emissions by 4,700 metric tons in 2013. The new software allows the GTOC-A to optimize ground shipping through dynamic load planning that determines optimal transportation modes and consolidates existing transportation movements. Through these simple methods, facilities currently managed by the GTOC-A have seen a 6 to 10 percent monthly reduction in transportation spend, fewer travel miles through load consolidation, plus improved trailer utilization costs. These improvements result in fewer trips, lower fuel consumption and fewer CO2 emissions.
Through 2013, the freight optimization program has allowed the GTOC-A to achieve some impressive results, which we expect to get even better. The GTOC-A's managed network is only half implemented; it will eventually track all inbound and outbound ground transportation in North America.
