High-Impact Moves for a Sustainable Supply Chain 17
Americold employees worldwide are actively involved in standardizing and scaling the company's sustainability performance. Through regional, employee-led sustainability councils across the United States, Europe, and APAC, team members collaborate to share best practices and navigate emerging environmental trends.
3 Assemble Accurate Data and Measure Measuring environmental impact is harder than it sounds, given inconsistent supplier data, fragmented internal systems, and methodologies that don’t align, Krajacic says. These make it dif cult to build the credible baseline measurements needed to determine whether operations are improving. Accurate data is also critical to making informed trade-offs. “Rarely are we solving for just one piece at a time within supply chains,” says Jason Li, partner with McKinsey. Instead, supply chains typically have to consider cost and service, as well as sustainability. At times, meeting a deadline might require expediting, which drives up costs and emissions. Accurate, complete data helps ensure that the trade-offs are presented in context, so the company can identify the best options. Technology can help in capturing data. Americold leverages real-time metering at all its sites, Dunn says. Site managers can see, in real time, whether they’re using more energy than they previously were, given current conditions.
Americold’s intelligent automated refrigeration platforms embed AI, enabling cost- saving strategies that optimize refrigeration performance and reduce inef ciencies, Dunn says. The systems pull in data, including weather, energy grid capacity, and forecasted utility rates, to help the sites avoid peak demand costs. The system automatically shifts loads and/or shuts down speci c equipment to cut energy use, while ensuring operations aren’t disrupted and that Americold remains compliant with all contracts. These actions help ensure that neither Americold, nor its customers, see large spikes in energy costs. The byproduct of equipment that operates ef ciently is lower kilowatt usage, which directly lowers greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 4 Invest in Planning Poor planning can drive up resource use. If demand forecasting and sales and operations planning processes are ineffective, companies often overproduce and carry excess inventory. They also often rely on energy-intensive expedited shipments to cover any gaps. “A lot of carbon gets burned xing
problems that better planning would have prevented,” Krajacic says. 5 Make Buildings More Efficient Sustainability efforts should extend to the facilities where supply chains operate. Soorty’s facilities, for instance, incorporate 11.7 megawatts of solar installations, which remove more than 7,200 tons of GHG annually, while a Soorty-owned wind farm has cumulatively avoided approximately one million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, Dikmen says. Biomass integration, or the incorporation of organic resources, such as wood or agricultural residue, into energy systems, reduces GHG by another 44,600 tons per year. Of Americold’s 240 warehouses, 200 have converted to LED lighting, with the company committed to converting all its sites by 2030, Dunn says. LED products can generate light up to 90% more ef ciently than incandescent light bulbs, reports Energy Star. As of December 2025, Americold has 34 facilities with solar installations and 46 facilities that are sourcing 100% renewable or low carbon energy. The
24 Inbound Logistics • June 2026
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