“Diesel fuel represents 80% of the toxic carbons produced by cold chain distribution, so we're excited to see our SolarTechTRU at the heart of PFG's carbon reduction efforts, alongside companies like GridMarket and Volvo VNR. AEM has already helped PFG reduce carbon by 500 tons as of 2023.”

- Robert Koelsch, Co-Founder & CEO, AEM.GREEN

First Come our Zero Emissions SolarTechTRU, Then Come Our Microgrids and AI-Based, Cordless Charging Systems.

I'd especially like to thank the person that  shook up this mineral water.

So on behalf of PFG, I want to express how extremely excited we are to have you here at our state of the art Gilroy, California facility, which will serve as our company's flagship distribution warehouse for sustainability and innovation initiatives. A lot of work goes into these events, so I definitely want to recognize a couple people in our team, as well as several that made this happen today.

So Scott Golden, heads our communication group, tremendous venue, couldn't have ordered up a better day. Len Lampkin, Sean Jones from our transportation teams, really establishing the partnerships and identifying this site as where we want to move forward, and really, Really just focus on everything innovation, see what works, what we're going to move forward with, but just great collaboration.

Also, we have many partners here, as you all know, and you'll get a chance to see them later, but I'd like to thank Advanced Energy Machines, Free Wire, Grid Market, and Volvo Trucks North America for being here today and really being true partners. very much. Last but not least, I'd like to thank the California Air Resources Board for trusting us with HVIP funding to help move this project forward.

And the California Energy Commission's Energized Commercial Vehicles Program for their help in developing our onsite charging infrastructure. Both of these organizations played an extremely instrumental role in ensuring that our investments were both strategic and cost effective, and impactful, setting a benchmark for sustainability in the food distribution industry.

Food distribution is an essential service and is critical to the companies and communities where we serve. At PFG, we understand the importance of being responsible stewards of the environment and protecting it for future generations. We remain committed to mitigating and reducing our environmental footprint through the efficient use of natural resources and the advancement of sustainable practices throughout the supply chain.

And that water got all of my notes, so it's fine. Part of our environmental strategy calls for the advancement of low carbon technologies for powering our distribution centers in freight transportation. This enables us to effectively decrease, and in some cases increase, eliminate emissions related to powering our fleet and refrigerating our trailers.

Over the last few years, we've conducted a greenhouse gas emission analysis and established a baseline as the foundation for developing a carbon reduction roadmap, and we then began evaluating several different pathways for reducing our emissions across the operations. Just to put it in perspective, as a company, our entire scope related to emissions Two thirds are related to diesel.

With over 8, 000 tractors and 9, 000 trailers on the road each day across the organization, diesel is where we're focusing the most. Power to our facilities is second at 20%. So all of our efforts focus on the top two categories, and those represent nearly 90 percent of our overall emissions.

We are actively getting much deeper into the process of building out our plans to continue to achieve these reductions. This location, Gilroy, is a strong example of the progress we've made, and I'd like to highlight a few of those features today. Here in Gilroy, we currently have a fleet of six Class 8 Volvo VNR electric trucks and a zero emission yard truck.

This exemplifies our move toward zero tailpipe emission transportation. That number will continue to grow over the coming months. Partnering with FreeWire Technologies, we've installed a charging island capable of charging up to 30 tractors, simultaneously ensuring operational efficiency and resiliency.

We've got six now. Capable up to 30 in the short term, so we can quickly go to 5x what we have today. We've also deployed more than 30 solar electric transportation refrigeration units from Advanced Energy Machines, representing breakthrough, zero emissions, multi temp controlled trailer technology. 

Each of the electric TRU installations has helped us eliminate approximately 20 tons of carbon per TRU per year. And finally, to help us power the facility in a sustainable manner, we've utilized rooftop solar power and battery storage through our partnership with GridMarket. The installation was by a renewable energy developer team, Enerlogix and NBL Energy.

All of this highlights our commitment to clean energy and reducing reliance on traditional grid power sources. As mentioned before, each of our vendor partners are here today and we are proud to highlight how collaborating toward a common goal can make such a significant impact. I urge you to visit each of these companies and learn about their technology and solutions that play a key role in this facility, as well as learn about all of the other solutions they've implemented across this and other industries.

Beyond this location, we continue to work on other opportunities. Not only are we deploying zero emission electric vehicles, but we are also piloting other innovative technologies to confirm whether or not they can be a fit in our operations. Back in January, to much fanfare, we introduced four hydrogen fuel cell hyzon trucks to the fleet at another one of our BFG operation facilities.

We will continue to analyze innovative technologies. To power our tractors and trailers with electric and other alternative fuel solutions and implement what works best depending on the need. So we don't see it as a one size fits all solution everywhere. We see it as an evolving landscape. We will continue to innovate and use facilities like this to test what will and won't work.

I promise I'm almost done. So as I mentioned earlier, none of this would be possible without the support of CARB. And the California Energy Commission. So with that said, I'm very happy to introduce the chair of the California Energy Commission, David Hochschild. Mr. Hochschild was appointed Chair of the California Energy Commission by Governor Gavin Newsom in February of 2019.

He fills the environmental position on the five member commission, where four of the five members are required to by law to have professional training in specific areas, engineering or physical science, environmental protection, economics and law. For his work to advance clean energy, Chair Hopshield was awarded the Sierra Club's Trailblazer Award, the American Lung Association's Clean Air Hero Award and the U.S. Department of Energy's Million Solar Roof True Champion Award. So I'd be remiss if I didn't use a bit of flattery to ask for continued support and to recap those awards. He is a trailblazer, a hero, and a champion of our athletes.

PRESS:

The invitation to the event: https://www.aem.green/aem-blog/b/earth-day-celebration-sustainable-warehouse-open-house

The Press Release that also went out on BusinessWire: https://www.aem.green/aem-blog/b/press-release-pfgs-earth-day-carbon-reduction-showcase-event-2024

Event Summary on Yahoo Finance

Feature Article in Jar So Fjoy

Feature Article in In the Chronicle-Tribune

MORE TO COME...

GOING GREEN IN THE BLACK