Crown Equipment Corporation released its 2013 ecologic™ report highlighting the company’s global efforts to minimize waste, manage energy use, and maximize product and facility lifespan. This year’s report also emphasizes Crown’s success in designing, engineering and manufacturing material handling equipment and solutions that help customers’ sustainability efforts through increased energy efficiency that saves valuable resources and cuts costs. This success includes products such as the Crown RM 6000 Series narrow aisle forklift, which features Xpress™ Lower technology that increases lowering speed to 240 fpm (feet per minute) without using any additional energy; and Crown’s InfoLink® fleet and operator management software that helps customers monitor the efficient use of their forklift fleet and total operations. Building sustainability into the innovation process is being noticed and appreciated by customers.
“When you operate a Crown forklift, it’s obvious the company truly understands the design elements that make a good forklift and the relationship between operators and their lift trucks,” said Jim Slattery, vice president of operations, Fairrington Transportation. “As a result of this commitment, companies such as ours benefit from a product that doesn’t just look nice, but also helps to make an operator’s job easier and the entire warehouse more productive.”
Crown evaluates the ecological and human health impact of its products during their life cycle, which helps the company understand the cradle-to-grave environmental performance of the product design and manufacturing processes. Design and engineering teams also conduct human-factors research by test driving forklifts, researching trends and talking to expert users. Through this research, the company discovers innovative ideas that benefit customers with safer, and more reliable, durable and energy-efficient forklifts.
“While it is crucial that we as a company make informed sustainable choices and implement strategies around reducing, reusing and recycling, it is equally as important that we help our customers achieve success with their own sustainability efforts,” said Brian Duffy, Crown’s director of corporate environmental and manufacturing safety. “The largest impact regarding energy consumption in the lifecycle of a forklift occurs during operation. With energy efficiency as a key element of a greener supply chain, it is important to provide customers with products and technologies that will help reduce energy use and lower their carbon footprint.”
This commitment to sustainability continues to gain the company industry recognition. For instance, Crown recently earned the prestigious International Forklift of the Year (IFOY) honor in the Forklift Truck Solutions category. The award program is sponsored by the German Engineering Federation (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V. – VDMA). Judging for this category looks at a variety of considerations, including innovation and sustainability.
