Over the years, our asset-lean Precision Railroading initiatives, fuel-efficient locomotive acquisitions and locomotive technology upgrades, innovative yard efficiencies and focused fuel conservation practices have all contributed to the reduction of our carbon footprint.

Precision Railroading

Allows us to use fewer railcars and locomotives to ship more freight. Precision Railroading focuses on:

• The carload – the individual customer's shipment
• The scheduling of every support process leading up to the movement of the carload (from initial origin to final destination)
• A "trip plan", a customized transit time commitment from origin to destination (expressed in hours).

Routing Protocols

Serve to reduce rail-freight costs industry-wide by placing traffic on the most efficient routing, regardless of track ownership. We currently have routing protocol agreements in place with all Class I railroads.

Co-production

These arrangements, are designed to increase efficiencies and improve service by optimizing the use of current industry infrastructure while maintaining a shipper’s competitive options. We currently have over 100 agreements in place, covering key locations across our North American rail network.

Efficient Information Technology (IT) systems

Sophisticated IT systems such as GPS, wireless communication, and the next generation of business intelligence solutions are creating new opportunities to advance our railroad operations.

Locomotive fleet acquisitions and upgrades

We continue to acquire new, fuel-efficient locomotives and upgrade our existing fleet. These new locomotives enable us to meet Tier 2 regulatory obligations, and are up to 20% more fuel efficient, producing 40% less nitrogen oxides.

Research and development

We work with manufacturers and research centres to support the development of cleaner rail technologies. We are currently investing $1 million in research into next-generation locomotives and alternative fuels.

Improving Yard Efficiencies

Our innovative SmartYard project makes traditional switching practices at our largest switching yards more flexible and efficient.

Focusing on Fuel Conservation Practices

Our crews are trained on better fuel conservation practices, including locomotive shutdowns in our yards, streamlined railcar handling, train pacing, coasting and braking strategies, as well as notch limiting, which means locomotives are not run in their top notch setting when maximum power is not required.

The emissions from the operation of our vehicle and vessel fleets, such as intermodal trucks and company vehicles, represent approximately 8% of our total carbon emissions. So what are we doing to bring those numbers down? A lot actually:

• Improving our Intermodal Truck Fleet Efficiency
• Upgrading our On Company Service Fleet (OCS)
• Promoting Better Practices in our Shipping Vessel Fleet

Every day we continue to identify opportunities to reduce our energy consumption, and implement and share energy reduction programs for our buildings and yards. We also plan to refine our carbon inventory by developing a measurement system that more accurately incorporates our energy consumption data.

We believe that innovative supply chain solutions will help drive a lower carbon economy and increase awareness among shippers of the strong environmental benefits of shipping by rail. From carbon credits, network velocity and train efficiency to first-mile/last-mile reliability and safety initiatives we continue to look at ways we can help our customers capitalize on the positive impacts of shipping by rail.

We also provide education to customers of government incentive programs that favor rail freight solutions.

We are engaging governments in adopting the modal shift protocol throughout North America, and supporting customers in their use of the protocol. At the same time, we are increasing our efforts to encourage and engage our employees in our sustainability efforts.