Loblaw Companies Limited was joined by the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, at the unveiling of a 53-foot, fully electric Class 8 truck, capable of making commercial grocery deliveries with zero carbon emissions.
The first-of-its-kind truck marks an important step as Loblaw announced its commitment to move its corporately-owned trucking fleet to electric vehicles. The truck was manufactured by BYD, the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles and a global leader in battery electric buses and trucks.
“As one of Canada’s largest energy users, given the size and scope of our retail network and supply chain, we know we have a critical role to play in helping Canada reach its carbon reduction targets,” said Rob Wiebe, Executive Vice President, Supply Chain, Loblaw Companies Limited. “We are committed to leading responsibly in this area, working with our partners like BYD for sustainable solutions to help our company, and our country, meet those goals.”
The fully electric Class 8 truck and hybrid refrigerated trailer demonstrated today use technology that will be expanded to Loblaw’sfleet in the coming years. Removing diesel from transport trucks and refrigerated trailers could reduce more than 94,000 tonnes of C02 emissions per year, the equivalent of removing more than 20,000 cars1 from the road.
As part of its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint 30 percent by 2030, Loblaw has committed to reduce the intensity of transportation emissions to 0.087 gCO2 e/t-km and will continue work to bring technological advances throughout the supply chain.
Since 2011, Loblaw has identified a number of carbon-reduction strategies to help reduce its carbon footprint. Informed by a science-based approach for establishing targets, Loblaw’s strategy focuses on reducing emissions across four key areas to increase energy and transportation efficiencies, reduce refrigerant emissions, and improve waste diversion efforts.
By 2030, Loblaw will have reduced emissions associated with electricity consumption by 35 per cent, transportation by 25 per cent, and refrigerants by 50 per cent. It will also improve waste diversion to 80 per cent in stores and 95 per cent in distribution centres.
