The TRSA’s prestigious environmental award recognizes novel approaches to increasing sustainability by conserving natural resources and reducing overall environmental impact. Winning top honors this year is the Paris Companies Super Trailer. Inspired by a specialized, NASCAR team trailer, Paris experimented with lowering the floor of a semi-trailer and creating interior upper and lower decks to haul more hospital linen carts. The Super Trailer was born, and cart capacity increased 67% from 36 to 60 carts.
Paris has three Super Trailers in service, with a fourth joining the fleet in September. In a full year, the Super Trailers will save about 625,000 miles annually that otherwise must be driven by additional tractors and trailers. Using an average 5.5 MPG fuel consumption, the annual diesel fuel savings is 113,000 gallons. In addition to the substantial petroleum savings, diesel exhaust containing 1,250 tons of CO2, a potent greenhouse gas, is avoided. Diesel exhaust also contains forty toxic contaminants, including cancer-causing substances such as benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde.
Dave Stern, President and CEO of Paris Companies, commented, “As a large consumer of water and energy, the textile services industry has a particular concern about adopting the most sustainable practices. Paris has long-standing recycling programs for cardboard, metal, plastics, textiles and other basic materials. Additionally, we regularly invest in technologies such as water recycling, water reuse, and heat recovery systems that save our environment tens of millions of gallons of water annually and reduce natural gas consumption. What is truly unique and impressive about the Super Trailer is that something so simple has such a tremendous positive impact on the environment.”
According to a calculation used by the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, saving 113,000 gallons of diesel by using four Super Trailers accomplishes the same reduction in CO2 exhaust as taking nearly 250 automobiles off the road.
“We are very proud that our Super Trailer innovation has received our industry’s 2015 award for sustainability. More fulfilling yet, the Super Trailer represents Paris’s ongoing commitment to our environment and our communities. Our thanks to the TRSA Board of Directors and Environmental Committee for this honor,” added Stern.
For more information, visit www.parisco.com.
Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.
