As part of its continued commitment to sustainable practices, US Foods announced that its Oklahoma City, Okla. division is using five new trucks that run on compressed natural gas. Natural gas is cleaner burning than gasoline, and reduces ozone-forming emissions by an average of 80 percent when compared to gasoline vehicles.
The Oklahoma City division delivers food and related products to more than 5,000 customers in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Texas, including restaurants, health care institutions and hotels. The division will purchase compressed natural gas from fuel retailers that have partnered with Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country and a US Foods customer.
"US Foods continues to make improvements across the company to reduce our environmental footprint and allow us to serve our customers in an energy efficient way," said Sam Erwin, Oklahoma City division president, US Foods in a prepared statement. "These five new vehicles will help us drastically reduce our annual fuel costs while reducing the amount of emissions emitted during our daily deliveries to customers."
US Foods is certified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a SmartWay Partner, thanks to the company's initiatives to maximize fuel economy and reduce emissions. These initiatives have improved the efficiency of the US Foods fleet, reduced the amount of fuel used and enabled the company to avoid 22,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
