Trucking’s Unsung Path to Net Zero
Authored by SMC³ on May 16, 2025
In a policy climate defined by political whiplash, the trucking industry is carving a quieter, steadier path toward sustainability—often without credit, and increasingly without clear regulatory guidance.
This was the main takeaway from Mike Kelley and Glen Kedzie, two longtime leaders in the freight sector’s environmental evolution, during the opening session of SMC3’s LTL202 Live Session, “From Dock to Stock”. Their discussion was as much a retrospective as it was a look ahead. Together, the panelists laid out not the numbers behind trucking’s emissions reductions, but even more importantly, the operational mindset required to move an emissions-heavy sector toward a cleaner future.
“We’re not Google, we’re not Microsoft,” Kelley said bluntly. “We have a large carbon footprint—but the progress we’ve made is flat-out remarkable.”
This isn’t hyperbole. According to Kelley, it now takes 60 modern diesel trucks to equal the emissions of a single 1988 model. If the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pending NOx standards are enacted, that number could rise to 300.
But technology alone won’t get the industry to net zero, and in many ways, that’s not the point. The deeper story, as both men emphasized, is one of operational ingenuity and cultural change.
Navigating Regulatory Chaos
Kedzie, who spent over two decades as Assistant General Counsel and head of environmental affairs at the American Trucking Associations, opened with a sobering assessment of the current regulatory environment: “It’s a mess. I used to say things changed yearly. Now it’s hourly.”
He described a patchwork of rules—some active, some in litigation, others withdrawn—many centered on California’s aggressive climate regulations and their clash with the deregulatory impulses of the current federal administration. California’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule, which would have mandated a phased-in purchase of zero-emission vehicles, has been shelved. Other EPA-led measures, including the Phase 3 greenhouse gas rule and SEC-mandated climate disclosures, are also under legal siege or facing non-enforcement.
Adding to the volatility is a political push to strip key terms—“climate,” “carbon,” “greenhouse gas”—from federal policy documents.
“We’re seeing an intentional effort to deconstruct the environmental progress of the last administration,” Kedzie warned. “But this isn’t permanent. The pendulum will swing again.”
And that, according to both panelists, is exactly why carriers should not wait on Washington.
Progress Despite Politics
“You don’t need perfect regulations to make real progress,” Kelley noted. “You need good partners, better data, and a culture that values continuous improvement.”
That culture, both agreed, is alive and well across the industry. A recent PwC survey found that 47% of public companies plan to stick with their climate goals regardless of federal mandates. Another 37% said they intend to raise their targets. Only 16% said they might scale back.
Why the determination? Because it makes financial sense. Efficient routing, smarter loading, and even seemingly small gains in fuel economy directly benefit the bottom line. Kelley pointed out that reducing just 1,200 miles per truck per year—through better route planning—saves thousands of dollars in diesel. Multiply that across a fleet, and the impact is significant.
“The shiny new electric truck gets the headlines,” he said. “But the real gains are coming from back-office optimization—load planning, route modeling, fuel management. These are sustainability decisions made at a keyboard, not just under the hood.”
Partnerships, Not Just Engines
A key takeaway from the session was that the path to sustainability is no longer a solo effort. Utilities, municipalities, permitting authorities, tech vendors, and shippers all play a role. And for many carriers, this network of collaboration is new terrain.
“In the past, we didn’t talk about partnerships,” Kedzie said. “You just did your job. But now, if you want to electrify part of your fleet, you’re talking to people you never dealt with before—local government, utilities, charging infrastructure firms.”
The rise of corporate sustainability goals among shippers has also pushed emissions tracking deeper into carrier operations. Before Kelley’s former employer Yellow, shuttered, sustainability performance eventually ranked alongside safety and pricing during customer evaluations.
“The same way we embedded safety into our culture—tracking it, rewarding it, sharing best practices—we’re now doing that with emissions,” he said.
Toward a New Language of Sustainability
Terms like “zero-emissions vehicle,” the panelists argued, do more harm than good when they imply a level of cleanliness that cannot exist—not in manufacturing, not in sourcing, and not in grid-based electricity.
“There is no such thing as zero-emissions anything,” Kelley said. “We all operate in the real world. Let’s use real language.”
Kedzie added that for all the talk of electrification, heavy-duty long-haul remains a challenge, with battery weight, charging infrastructure, and range limitations making electric options largely impractical for now. Alternative fuels—like renewable diesel and natural gas—will likely play a bigger near-term role.
Still, neither panelist dismissed the long game. “Net zero is still a goal,” Kedzie said. “But we may need to rename it—‘near zero,’ maybe. It’s about direction and momentum, not ideological purity.”
Metrics Matter—So Does Patience
On the subject of metrics, the panel struck a cautious but optimistic tone. Carrier-level emissions data is now robust, even if shipment-level tracking is still evolving. SMC3’s own LTL emissions calculator, developed alongside its cost intelligence tool, offers a promising model for combining operational insight with environmental transparency.
But metrics alone aren’t enough. What’s needed, they said, is patience—a rare virtue in today’s polarized landscape.
“If you’ve got a way to manufacture more patience,” Kedzie joked, “we’d all be in your debt.”
In the end, the industry’s message is simple: we’re not perfect, but we’re serious. And that, in today’s climate, is no small thing.
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