U-Haul shared honors with a group of leading companies that are making a difference in energy conservation when it recently received the Salt River Project’s Champions of Energy Efficiency Outstanding Achievement Award.
SRP presented awards at the Champions of Energy Efficiency luncheon to 15 innovative businesses for their commitment to reducing energy consumption and conserving resources. The businesses were recognized for being outstanding participants in SRP’s commercial energy efficiency programs.
“As a leader in our industry, it is essential that we plan for the future,” Dr. Allan Yang, Chief Sustainability Scientist of U-Haul International, stated upon accepting the award for U-Haul.
“U-Haul Company’s Corporate Energy Management program provides an invaluable input for developing a Company-wide innovative energy strategy and management system as well as guidance to help us prepare for future energy-related risks.”
Embracing Energy Efficiency
Award winners demonstrated going above and beyond the standard with their various improvements to conserve energy. For U-Haul, this included a regional campaign throughout Arizona to convert or replace all inefficient and outdated exterior lighting fixtures with LED applications. On average, the new LED light fixtures use 60 percent less energy.
U-Haul also installed sensors to dim or turn off its LED lights when appropriate to conserve additional energy. Beyond efforts to improve lighting efficiency in Arizona, U-Haul installed new energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units at several of its Arizona locations.
The Company continually encourages Team Members to practice energy-saving behaviors such as turning off lights when they are not in use; turning off and unplugging electronics during non-business hours; recycling e-waste; and keeping main entry and side doors closed.
During his acceptance speech, Yang added: “I greatly appreciate that the SRP award panel acknowledged our efforts and chose us among all others for the Outstanding Achievement Award. All opportunities to reduce energy intensity impact the business. And we’ve found that even small steps make a difference. Acting now just makes good business sense.”
Leading the Way
U-Haul is committed to implementing sustainability programs in ways beyond energy savings. Vehicle-sharing, eco-friendly retail items, customer-centric programs like Take-A-Box, Leave-A-Box, and tree-planting partnerships are just a few examples of these efforts.
Sustainability initiatives position U-Haul as the leader in the do-it-yourself moving industry, producing value as well as efficiency for customers. This occurs while employing sustainable solutions to lower environmental impacts, benefiting the communities where we live, work and play.
Finally, do you know about the latest disruptive program to impact the moving industry: U-Haul Truck Share 24/7? The entire concept of truck sharing is a sustainable practice.
Now truck sharing is available at any hour of any day at every U-Haul location. All it requires is a verified uhaul.com account and a smartphone with GPS and camera functions.
