By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
A conversation about the environment between a few short-line industry executives at the 2019 American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) annual meeting led to the launch of the ASLRRA Environmental Committee.
The group, which held its first meeting in September 2020, has 35 members and counting as of early February. Its formation is the latest example of ASLRRA’s effort to address railroads’ efforts at reducing their industry’s carbon footprint.
“Railroads represent only 2% of emissions — even though we’re 40% of the freight footprint,” says Jo Strang, the ASLRRA's senior vice president who serves as staff to the Environmental Committee. “So, freight railroads are a really green way to ship.”
Jo Strang, ASLRRACommittee membership is made up of a diverse group, including people who directly at railroads, to service providers to consultants. Committee chair is Sean Strong, assistant vice president of environmental at Watco Cos. LLC.
The committee’s work will address environmental issues on two fronts: sustainability and compliance, Strong says. On the compliance side, the committee aims to help association members meet environmental regulations, and has developed some basic compliance documents for them to use.
On the sustainability side, the group is sharing information about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay Program, of which the ASLRRA became an affiliate in 2020. That program helps companies advance supply-chain sustainability by measuring, benchmarking and improving freight transportation efficiency, according to the EPA website.
“What [the Environmental Committee] has found is that a lot of smaller railroads have already made a ton of improvements to their operations from a business perspective, but they aren’t necessarily taking credit for the environmental-reduction impact that they are having,” says Strong.
Participation in SmartWay can help change that. The program offers a scorecard and other tools that railroads can use to communicate with customers how shipping by rail can help them meet their environmental goals.
A railroad’s ability to measure and report how it’s reducing its carbon footprint is increasingly important when developing new business opportunities.
“When they’re assessing how they’re going to ship their materials, most big companies now ask questions like, ‘Do you have a sustainability program? Do you have an environmental management system? Are you tracking this stuff and can you give us numbers on that’?” Strong says. “The EPA SmartWay Program will really help facilitate those answers.”
Sean Strong, Watco Cos. LLCShort lines have been doing “groundbreaking work” to be clean, green and sustainable, from addressing light and sound pollution, to limiting waste and recycling fuel, ties and steel, ASLRRA officials say. For example, many diesel powered locomotives have been replaced with energy efficient switching engines or idle reduction equipment, which improves air quality in terminal yards.
A couple of specific and recent examples of ASLRRA member sustainability efforts include: Knoxville Locomotive Works being awarded EPA Tier 4 emission certifications for its SE Series four- and six-axle locomotive designs; and in November 2020, Anacostia Rail Holdings Co. announced its Pacific Harbor Line affiliate signed an agreement with Progress Rail to use its EMD® Joule battery electric locomotive in a demonstration project at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. The new six-axle locomotive is zero-emission, zero-idle and low noise.
ASLRRA’s Environmental Committee is developing some targeted education events, with one focused on fire suppression systems and another on grant programs that fund green efforts such as locomotive upgrades.
In addition, the committee will be tracking what President Biden’s administration will be proposing regarding the environment and transportation infrastructure. Late last month, the president signed executive orders that call for a whole-government approach to climate change.
Says Strong: “Everyone on the Environmental Committee has their ear to the ground to track what’s coming down the pike on sustainability.”
