Reducing our footprint in distribution

American Licorice reduces impact by using rail to transport product between our plants. We manufacture Red Vines® and Super Ropes® in California and deliver products to our Western customers from this location. We manufacture Sour Punch® and Natural Vines® in Indiana and deliver to our Midwestern and Eastern customers from this location. The Hub Group, our rail partner, estimates that we saved 70% of our emissions (over 1.2 million pounds of carbon) in 2011 from using rail transport instead of trucking between plants.

Our top shipping companies, ABF, Dependable, and FedEx are EPA Smart Way partners. Smart Way partners report their emissions and emissions reductions to the EPA annually. ABF, representing 20% of our shipments, has achieved a fuel efficiency/environmental score of 1.25, an outstanding score. ABF has reduced their emissions by voluntarily setting a maximum speed for their trucks, as well as strict equipment maintenance, and an “aggressive equipment replacement program”—ABF road tractors have an average age of 1-1/2 years.

Partnership with our customers represents additional opportunities to reduce our impact. We worked with Dot Foods in 2011, to optimize pick ups to reduce emissions and energy.

In 2012, we begin to work on measuring our impact in transportation and in the supply chain, a significant portion of our carbon footprint. Both inbound (energy used in the supply chain) and outbound (energy used in distribution and business travel) emissions are reported as part of Scope 3 emissions in carbon emissions reporting. We’ll work with shipping companies to estimate fuel used and use secondary data to estimate the energy used to produce and transport materials into our plants.

Current carbon emissions information for scope one and scope two can be viewed here.