Thomas Built Buses, a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks North America LLC (DTNA), says it has become the first school bus manufacturer to achieve Zero-Waste-to-Landfill operations.
Zero-Waste-to-Landfill means that everything received or produced by the company is used, reused, recycled or sold, and nothing is sent to the landfill. Using the company’s Truck Operating System (TOS) continuous improvement program, Thomas employee teams identified the best options for reducing waste and recycling each material, whether reusing cartons for shipping, reclaiming solvent, working with supplier partners to reduce packaging or turning waste into energy.
We carted our last load to the landfill in December and reopened as a Zero-Waste-to-Landfill company in January. We are delighted to be starting the new year with a literal “clean slate”.
—Kelley Platt, president and CEO of Thomas Built Buses
The Zero-Waste-to-Landfill goal was initiated by Daimler AG to reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing facilities under the Daimler umbrella.
From 2008 to 2010, the company nearly doubled its recycling of wood and nearly tripled its paper recycling. During the same time frame, Thomas Built has focused on reducing water consumption and decreasing its energy use overall.
DTNA is also part of Duke Energy’s distributed generation plan, in which electricity is produced at numerous solar panel micro-generating sites, rather than at a large, centralized, traditional power plant. Through a 25-year contract, Thomas Built is providing the land to support 1,690 solar panels, owned and operated by Duke Energy. This Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Field project will produce 389 kW of renewable energy for the Duke Energy Power Grid—enough electricity to power approximately 41 homes.
A second North Carolina DTNA facility is bringing on an additional 1,560 panels later this year.
In addition to its conventional buses, Thomas Built Buses currently manufactures both Type C hybrid-electric and Type D compressed natural gas (CNG) buses. Thomas Built also is working to introduce Saf-T-Liner C2 and Minotour propane-fueled school buses in 2012.