Milica Sari, Nick Russo, Ojay James, Brittany Herndon, James Lascoula

December 6, 2016
UPS Case
UPS has always been a company that has been about having the best and being the best. The
United Parcel Service for years has always focused on trying to save money while bettering the
environment for an effective cause. Dating back to the 1930’s, UPS experimented with 20-mph
electric cars to deliver packages in the city. In the 80’s, they focused on running their vehicles on
compressed natural gas. The company wanted to see if they could take their 3 million fleet of
trucks that typically ran on 4 billion gallons of diesel and see if they could turn things around for
the environment and use a safer, cost effective alternative. In 2008, The White House launched a
National Clean Fleets Partnership was put in place to embody the idea of incorporating safer
alternatives including natural gas, hydrogen, electricity and many others. They aimed at helping
businesses embrace vehicles that run on natural gas, electricity, hydrogen, and other alternative
fuels.
This partnership triggered a collaboration between UPS and the U.S. Department of Energy
and top fleet operators like UPS. UPS's fleet of alternative fuel and advanced technology
vehicles is comprised of more than 2,500 vehicles, utilizing a variety of alternative technologies
and/or alternative fuels. Due to the company's history of trying its hardest to switch to fuel-
efficient alternatives, this was no surprise. In 2011, they ordered 40 liquefied natural gas engine
tractor trailers expanding their natural gas fleet to 59 trailers. That quickly increased to 112 by
2013 and in 2014 they purchased 700 liquefied natural gas vehicles. Today, the company
continues to test other types of alternative fuels for their fleet and they plan to transform over
96,000 vehicles into fuel efficient vehicles. UPS set the goal of reaching 1 billion miles driven
with alternative fuels by the end of 2017 back in 2012. They ended up setting a new goal to
achieve a 20 percent reduction in carbon intensity from transportation by 2020. With consumer
deliveries expected to grow to half of UPS’s U.S. business volume by 2019, the company is
deploying cutting-edge strategies and technologies to address this challenge. ORION is expected
to help UPS avoid 100 million miles driven every year, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
100,000 metric tons annually, and avoid 10 million gallons of fuel per year. Although numerous
alternative-fuel technologies are competing for dominance at UPS, liquefied natural gas has
gained significant momentum in recent years, especially for Brown's largest trucks.
Currently UPS is participating in the Interstate Clean Transportation Corridor, an initiative
funded through the U.S. Department of Energy to promote and enable more widespread use of
clean transportation. It is the longest and most vital LNG corridor in the United States. Its
partnership between public and private stakeholders to expand alternative fuel vehicle use and
refueling station access throughout the Western United States. ICTC offers fleet operators
assistance with alternative fuel technology options, fueling station information, grant funding
assistance and start-to-finish project implementation assistance.
Approximately one-third of their alternative fuel/advanced technology vehicles operate
outside the United States; in Brazil, Canada, Netherlands, Chile, South Korea, Germany, and the
UK. Their expanding green fleet is logging millions of miles every year. They have surpassed
240 million miles, and have their sight set on 400 million by 2017.
 Sharing progress and learnings with key stakeholders and partnering with alternative fuel and
technology developers, nonprofits, government agencies and industry trade groups have been
critical to the Rolling Laboratory’s success. UPS reports its progress annually in its sustainability
report, and includes key metrics such as CO2 emissions, energy consumption and alternative fuel
and advanced technology miles driven, among others. What started out as an “approach” has
become an “ecosystem of innovation and progress” shaped by collaboration.
UPS is seemingly taking the role of test guinea pig; essentially blazing the trail for other
companies to consider using alternative fuels with vehicles that may be otherwise be considered
unhealthy for the environment. By UPS taking on such an initiative, they are taking the first step
forth in becoming an environmentally efficient company out of all the competition in the postal
delivery business. In my opinion, this could spark some interesting competition between UPS
and other carriers, such as FedEx, USPS, and other services. We could very well see mail
delivery trucks that run on Liquefied Natural Gas LNGs or other sources of alternative fuels,
such as electric/hybrid engines, or engines running on vegetable oil. We could also potentially
see companies taking the step Amazon took in recent times, and have packages delivered locally
with carrier drones. The use of carrier drones could cut out the need for fueling delivery trucks
all together, along with providing those receiving their packages with a quicker delivery time.
Yet at the same time, using such technology could cut out the need for postal workers driving
trucks to deliver the mail, and basically taking some current drivers out of their jobs.
In the same regard, the company also continues their long history of being energy efficient by
partaking in this initiative. This history goes as far back as the 1930s with trucks that ran on
electric energy and only picked up a speed of around twenty miles per hour. When I first saw
that UPS had these energy capabilities back in the 1930s, I was very much astounded. We had
always thought that electrical engines were more along the lines of an innovation that has only
come around in today's times, let alone around eighty years ago. Not only did they manage to use
delivery trucks running on electricity in the 1930s, but in the 1980s, they had trucks running on
compressed natural gas. In general, it seems that UPS is and was very much ahead of both other
companies, and ecological trends in the automotive category by leaps and bounds with a lot of
the innovations used in their trucks. It helps their case immensely that they were also partnered
with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2006 to create a mail delivery truck using a
hydraulic engine.
Taking these steps in pursuit of trailblazing alternative fuels in delivery trucks shows that
UPS is willing to take a chance on going environmentally friendly; even if it comes at a much
higher price. However, we are starting to enter a time where these higher costs come as a long-
term investment. If the price to fuel up these LNG engines is cheaper than the price of fueling a
conventional truck at the cost of the actual engine, then the real question is why not switch over?
Well UPS has really gone on to show dedication towards this initiative by investing in more
engines running on liquefied natural gas, that by the end of 2013, the company's LNG fleet had
grown to one-hundred-twelve tractor-trailers that run on the fuel. They have also set their sights
on fulfilling a mission; which comes in the form of collectively driving one-billion miles with
only their LNG tractor-trailers. After crunching some numbers between their goal and the given
size of their fleet, each LNG tractor-trailer would have to drive 8,928,571 miles, or in an
equivalent example, driving from Massachusetts all the way to California around 2,883 times. A
goal like that is a huge undertaking, which upon research has since been substantially lowered
down to four-hundred-million miles driven by next year. In the same context as my previous
example with their original goal now lowered, it would take each delivery truck around
3,571,428 miles, or roughly 1,153 trips from Massachusetts to California. On the official UPS
website, it is posted that their LNG fleet has driven a collective two-hundred-forty-million mile,
which meets well over half of their new goal.
Per UPS's green chief, effective sustainability reinforces a company's economic
responsibility. "Above all else, sustainability is about being able to maintain a balance between
our impacts on the environment and society, but at the same time keep the company
economically prosperous. Corporate social responsibility, the voluntary commitment of a
business that includes triple bottom line actions in its corporate processes, based on the principle
that corporate success and social well-being are interdependent and that the long-term interests
of an organization are best served by improving its economic, sociocultural and environmental
energy practices.
Sustainability isn’t just about their own efforts- it’s about providing customers ways to
improve their operating practices by creating efficiencies, reducing resources used, and
minimizing overall impact. It’s about helping others through community involvement and
humanitarian efforts, as well as supporting the well-being of their people.
" Doing what's right for the environment and society, and being mindful of the bottom line so
we're a healthy company financially." One example is the carbon impact analysis, UPS provides
carbon emissions data with industry-leading accuracy and detail to help customers understand,
monitor and manage their climate impacts. Eco responsible packaging program chooses
sustainable and reusable materials to using right-size packaging to eliminate waste. Some
solutions for urban environments for UPS is by using emerging technologies to create
more sustainable methods and practices to serve rapidly growing urban populations while
reducing its carbon footprint. UPS has been an early adopter of innovative technologies.
Today they operate one of the industry's largest private alternative fuel and advanced
technology fleets made up of more than 7,200 low-emissions vehicles. Because fuel is such
an integral part of keeping their promise to their customers so they practice diligent, responsible
fuel sourcing as part of their comprehensive approach to energy use and emission
reduction. Trash to gas, renewable natural gas or biomethane, is derived from many abundant
renewable sources, including decomposing organic waste in landfills and agriculture. Their
commitment to investing in natural gas infrastructure offers a unique opportunity to use this fuel
in their fleet, through their rolling laboratory, they can determine how alternative fuels and
advanced technologies perform in real-world operating conditions, quickly deploy viable options
at scale, and spur market growth for alternative solutions.
Some of their recent achievements include; 2011 greenhouse gas inventory verified by
Société Générale de Surveillance, reported global enterprise CO2e emissions for scopes 1,2 and
3, Donated a total of $45.3 million through UPS Foundation charitable contributions in 2011,
and donated 1.6 million employee volunteer hours with a smaller workforce in 2011, with many
more achievements.
Today, UPS's CSO is one of the most visible figureheads of the company. Scott Wicker, has
been instrumental in defining what a CSO does. "The key thing I do in my job is try to keep
UPS focused on the environmental impacts that we have as an organization, and we're constantly
working to reduce those environment impacts." He was the UPS vice president of corporate plant
engineering, he was named the company's first Chief Sustainability Officer in 2011. His team
oversees a cross-functional Sustainability Working Committee and a Sustainability Directors
Committee that establishes key performance indicators and goals for the company. He joined
UPS in 1977 as an unloader in Detroit, Michigan. Today in addition to his current job he is also
Board President of Sustainable Atlanta and a member of the Georgia
Nature Conservancy board. Under Wicker’s
leadership, sustainability has garnered significant attention at UPS, appearing prominently in
the company's policy book, upside blog, and corporate Web site.
UPS established the Eco Responsible Packaging Program to recognize customers who are
committed to helping the environment through sustainable packaging. Companies that wish to
participate in this program allow UPS to conduct an evaluation of their packaging processes. To
qualify, these companies must meet UPS’ exacting criteria in three areas. The three categories
are damage prevention, right-sizing, and materials content. This is an example of how going
green in one aspect of a company can affect another aspect of the company. UPS started with
switching to alternative fuels and that lead them to starting programs that promote an eco-
responsible packaging program.