Reducing emissions is crucial for businesses in the trucking industry these days. But transitioning to electric vehicles is not the only way to lower carbon footprint. Jim Park spoke to Musket Transport, a Mississauga-based company that is finding other ways to make a difference. The fleet’s initiatives varied from staff training and recycling efforts to monitoring the energy needed to light and heat their facilities, all while minimizing consumption and related costs.

Sophia Sniegowski, corporate communications officer, Musket:  I would say we always had this underlying sustainability effort so that we’re always minimizing our carbon footprint, especially our fuel. We really kind of solidified it in 2016 when we started setting the baseline, and that’s when we were working with Climate Smart through the Mississauga Board of Trade. And this Canadian company was basically advertising through the Mississauga Board of Trade. From 2016 to 2019, we had a deep, detailed annual report where it went over all of our carbon footprint, including our utilities, the buildings, etc…

And it was telling, but it kind of just reaffirmed our assumptions where the fuel doesn’t even come close to the other carbon footprint outputs as a business. Even though we own our land, and we own most of the buildings, and all of the other parts to that, it’s so nominal that at the end, when you would get the bar graph for the carbon footprint, the fuel was about, like, this big, and the utilities was, like, barely aligned in comparison.

So even though there are things within our control in terms of switching to LED lighting, looking at our waste management systems, and all of those that can make a bit of an effect on our operations, it doesn’t even come close to shaving the original GHG emissions. Because it will be predominantly by our fuel. But regardless of us not maybe managing it in terms of being avantgarde with alternative fuels, because we don’t have those availabilities in long haul — the fact that we were consistently investing in the best fuel efficient engine at the time, regardless of our expansions through that time, our GHG emission was always being reduced.

Musket’s biggest carbon reductions came from training fuel-efficient drivers at CHET – or their Commercial Heavy Equipment Training center – and upgrading to latest power trains. CHET’s driving simulators let students train without using fuel, building muscle memory for efficient driving. They also teach Natural Resources Canada’s Smart Driver for Highway Trucking program, introducing fuel savings techniques from the start. The company has also launched an internal green team 2024 to improve facilities. Through a partnership with one of the Credit Valley Conservation programs, Musket started a planting project at their head office to reintroduce nature into the industrial spaces. At the Southdown Road container terminal, they created an outdoor break area and painted a mural on an unused container reflecting the area’s original landscape.

Sophia Sniegowski: So there’s little things that you can do that have an impact and then motivates and inspires employees because this is now something that affects them every day. There’s so much misinformation, and there’s a lot of stigma and stereotypes that are attached to the industry. Whether it’s the industry as a whole, or as specific as truck drivers, there’s a lot of misinformation. And, unfortunately, the way that our government is set up, they don’t have the ability to really work with the industry when they’re setting certain barriers. For example, the carbon tax. Although from premise, it’s not necessarily wrong, but it was supposed to be for those who have an alternative fuel vehicle. They’re taxing them so that they have pressure to choose now the green vehicle. We don’t have that option in our industry. There’s no alternative fuel vehicle… Yes, the EVs are gaining popularity, and we have an R&D project dedicated to it. But it goes far beyond finding the money to pay for that one EV day cab. And when we’re talking about that as well, a day cab is by definition short haul. We’re a long haul carrier. So for us, to even work on a pilot that way, we have to look at a customer partner, a vendor partner. We really have to generate an ecosystem when you think about the charging infrastructure. And, unfortunately, because we operate from Ontario, we only have federal grants that only shave a little bit off the initial cost to do that type of a pilot. At the end of the day, we have to service our customers, and, of course, we fall into their scope three. So we are being asked about alternative fuel vehicles, but at the same time, most of them are not willing to pay a higher price for the delivery service in an EV or willing to put in a charging infrastructure on their sites so that we can close the gap and ensure that the vehicle can make it from our yard to theirs. 

When asked about the future of sustainable trucking and the challenges facing the industry now, Musket’s leadership remains cautiously optimistic.

Sophia Sniegowski: I do think technological advancements may overcome infrastructure setbacks. I don’t think it will necessarily happen at the speed that we would like it to, but I am more hopeful in those advancements over regulatory changes or infrastructure that is brought in by different levels of government, especially when you’re starting to think about Canada and the U.S.