Estes partnering with Watershed to measure, elevate its sustainability program

Estes, the largest, privately owned freight carrier in North America, is partnering with Watershed, the leading enterprise sustainability platform, to assess and set benchmarks against its sustainability program.

Watershed empowers companies around the world to take action on climate change. Watershed customers leverage the platform’s intelligent analytics and industry-leading carbon data to measure, report, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Watershed’s goal is to enable the reduction of a collective 500 Mt CO2e from the Earth’s atmosphere each year by 2030—a goal it is on track to meet ahead of schedule.

The initial phase of Estes’ work with Watershed will be to complete its first-ever carbon footprint. Estes will use its 2023 footprint as a baseline to begin analyzing its emissions data and identify emissions hot spots. This foundation will inform new reduction targets to guide Estes’ sustainability efforts.

“The core of our mission is to always be improving Estes for today and the future – and this venture does just that,” said Sara Graf, vice president of sustainability, culture and communications. “We’re eager to see how Watershed quantifies the work we’ve already done in this space and helps us identify additional ways to manage our carbon output more effectively.”

Some of Estes’ recent sustainability initiatives include expanding its electric-vehicle fleet of twelve electric trailers and nearly 300 zero-emission forklifts and retrofitting its select terminals with solar panels, which are expected to generate approximately 1,667,000 kilowatt hours annually, offsetting approximately 1,180 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

“Watershed will give us an enterprise-wide look at our energy expenses – from our fleet to our facilities,” Graf added. “Better understanding these figures will help Estes be more sustainable in the future, both from an environmental and financial perspective.”