www.dcvelocity.com DECEMBER 2014 DC VELOCITY 37
landfill effort at Ace’s 14 retail support centers (RSCs)—a
step that Duvall predicts will be “a much more involved process.” But even without the support centers’ participation
in that effort, the company’s success at recycling has been
notable, Duvall says. “In 2013 alone, across our entire retail
support network, Ace recycled more than 38 million pounds
or 19,000 tons of pallets, plastic, and corrugate,” he says.
What the company’s managers understand—as do other
managers throughout industry who have adopted sustainable practices—is that it not only makes the business a good
neighbor, but it also makes good business sense. “At the end
of the day, costs are in play,” says Duvall. “We are saving
thousands of dollars a year in waste disposal costs.”
SEEING THE LIGHT
Ace has also worked to reduce energy use in its DCs. For
example, the company has swapped out its existing lighting
for high-efficiency light-emitting diode (LED) lighting in
two of its RSCs. Ace projects that in its Sacramento, Calif.,
operation, it will cut consumption by 1. 2 million kilowatt
hours and save $200,000 in electricity costs per year. The Sacramento
facility has reduced its demands for
power by more than a third in less
than three years, the company says.
Ace has enjoyed even greater success at its RSC in Princeton, Ill.,
a 1. 1 million-square-foot facility.
That building switched from 400-
watt metal halide lighting to LEDs,
resulting in $300,000 in annual cost
savings at current electrical rates.
Furthermore, the company says, the LED lights, which
emit little heat, will mean lower temperatures in the DC
during the summer, further reducing energy costs. Lighting
accounts for about 60 percent of a typical DC’s electrical
costs, De Young says.
For all its efficiencies, LED lighting has one significant
drawback: Its high installation costs make it unlikely that
Ace, or other companies, will adopt it universally. De Young
says the conversion only makes sense in places where electrical utilities or governments offer subsidies or incentives
for the installation. Installation costs for a large DC can run
$800,000 or more, but incentives can offset up to half of
that, making the investment more attractive. With incentives, De Young expects about a 2.5-year return on investment (ROI) for the installations in Illinois and California.
If the company had to foot the bill on its own, the return
could take five years or more.
Ace is incorporating most of its sustainability practices
at its new facilities. The company this year opened RSCs
in Wilmer, Texas, and West Jefferson, Ohio. Both have
energy-efficient motion detection lighting. Their lift and
reach trucks operate on GenDrive hydrogen fuel cell units
from provider PlugPower. The facilities create the hydro-
gen, leaving only super-pure deionized water as a byprod-
uct. The technology also saves energy by eliminating the
need for a battery charging operation. Ace management is
crunching the numbers to see if it can roll out the technol-
ogy to other DCs.
TRANSPORTATION YIELDS SAVINGS
Transportation is another area where Ace has focused substantial attention on sustainable practices. The company
participates in the Environmental Protection Agency’s
Smart Way program, which encourages shippers and carriers to operate in an environmentally responsible manner.
Ace became certified as a SmartWay shipper in 2009. The
company’s private fleet, about 400 tractors and 1,200 trailers, earned Smart Way certification in 2013.
To reduce the fleet’s carbon footprint, Ace made a number of adjustments to its operating practices,
according to Scott McLean, director
of transportation. For instance, its
onboard systems track a driver’s
hours of service and monitor driver behavior like hard braking and
excess speed. The trucks’ governors
limit vehicle speed to 65 miles per
hour. Technology installed in tractors limits idling to five minutes.
Side skirts on a large portion of the fleet’s trailers improve
operating efficiency. The company has installed auxiliary power units in its sleeper tractors so drivers can sleep
comfortably without running the engines. At each RSC,
tractor-trailer drivers get a weekly scorecard showing miles
per gallon driven and fuel consumption.
The company has deployed route optimization software to manage delivery routes to retail stores, a step that
McLean says has cut overall miles driven by 7 percent. Ace
re-optimizes its routes once a year, except in the Northern
states, where it’s done twice annually, he says. The company, like many shippers, is making an ongoing effort to
consolidate less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments into more
efficient truckload and intermodal consignments.
As for how it’s all working out, Duvall reiterates his point
that these efforts make sense from a pure business per-
spective. “It is good for the company, and it is good for the
environment,” he says. P H O
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