Making the industries we serve greener

I started an exciting, new phase in my career several weeks ago by joining Wabtec as the chief technology officer. This new role offers an opportunity to make a real difference for customers, shareholders and employees, but also the environment.

Wabtec is a leading technology provider in the transportation industry, especially in the rail and transit sectors. Rail is one of the most cost-effective, environmentally friendly modes of transport when it comes to moving freight or large numbers of people. As an example, it takes about 25,000 locomotives in North America to move approximately 40 percent of freight, compared to 25 million trucks to move 30 percent. Rail also is four times more fuel efficient than trucks and 23 times more efficient than aviation.

Despite this strong environmental performance, the industry can do better to reduce its carbon footprint. Plus, our customers demand better. They are on a continuous journey to reduce the impact of their operations on the planet. As a business partner, that is where Wabtec and our engineering team play a key role in helping customers and the industry achieve their sustainability targets.

Wabtec released this week its Sustainability Report highlighting the commitment to the environment, the community and diversity. The company’s focus is to drive sustainability through innovation, responsible operations and empowering people and communities. You can access the report at https://www.wabteccorp.com/Sustainability/Driving-a-More-Sustainable-Future.

As engineers, all of us have a duty to our profession to drive innovation. More important, we must design solutions that make our communities a better place. The world needs products and services that reduce energy consumption, provide fuel efficiency, eliminate waste, and promote re-use. However, it is not enough to provide eco-friendly products and services. Those solutions also must deliver financial returns for customers, in addition to environmental improvements.

Wabtec is doing its part to disrupt the industries it serves by designing sustainable technologies. Solutions like battery power, modernization programs, additive, digitization and the advancements of green technology across Transit bring tremendous environmental benefits to our customers. Fortunately, these technologies provide benefits from both a financial and sustainability perspective.

Our new FLXdrive Battery Locomotive is a perfect example. It is the industry’s first 100-percent, heavy-haul battery locomotive. Fuel is the second largest operating cost for Class 1 railroads at $7 billion annually and a source of emissions that these operators would like to reduce. This technology will provide 10- to 30-percent savings in fuel cost and emissions for the railroad when pairing it in a locomotive consist.

Other examples include our digital solution, Trip Optimizer, which serves as an intelligent cruise control for the train and reduces carbon emissions by over 500,000 tons per year – the equivalent of removing 100,000 cars from the road. Our Transit engineering team also is working on braking materials and technologies to reduce weight, energy usage and dust emissions, a challenge for metro systems worldwide. Those solutions are just some of the ways the Wabtec team is driving sustainability through innovation.

There is more to do - new environmentally friendly technologies to explore. That is the responsibility of every engineer at every company in every industry. Going forward, our profession must look at our design and development efforts through the lens of sustainability.

I will use our new corporate sustainability report as the guide for our engineering team to drive eco-friendly innovations that benefit all stakeholders. More important, it is the commitment we will hold ourselves accountable for to protect our planet through technological developments and environmental initiatives. It is the playbook which we will use to innovate with a purpose.