Safeway has announced the conversion of its entire trucking fleet of more than 1000 trucks to burn B20, a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% ordinary diesel.

By fueling their commercial fleet with B20 ,Safeway estimates a reduction of up to 75 million pounds of CO² emissions annually, equivalent to 7,500 passenger cars disappearing from the roadway – at least in terms of emissions, there’ll still be a backup at the Bay Bridge toll plaza every morning.

Safeway says the move is part of its Greenhouse Gas Initiative that includes a partnership with Solar Power Partners on a project announced last fall to install solar panels on 23 of its stores. The company is also one of the largest retail purchasers of wind power, utilizing 87,000 megawatts annually of wind generated electricity.

In 2006 Safeway joined the Chicago Climate Exchange and is also a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay Transport Program.

The company has had a recycling program in place for decades. If you’d care to imagine a pile of cardboard, plastic, and compostable material  covering six football fields some 35 feet high, you’d get a very visual idea of the material Safeway recycles on an annual basis (500,000 tons).

Companies like Safeway can set an example of transition from less efficient and sustainable processes into better methods of energy use, efficiency, resource management, and sustainability. It may not be perfect (there are many legitimate concerns over the use of biofuels for instance), but it is a step – or several steps – in the right direction. 

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