Innovators: Clark Transfer
November 2008 Commercial Carrier Journal 45 I n 1948, Highway Express soon to be renamed Clark Transfer became the first carrier granted rights by the Interstate Commerce Commission to transport theatrical goods throughout the continental United States, Mexico and Canada. In September 1949, company owners Jim Clark and Louis Whitey Molitch loaded the sets and costumes for the hit Broadway show Mister Roberts. Their entrepreneurial spirit brought touring produc-tions across the country for the first time, marking a new era for American show business. Sixty years later, the Harrisburg, Pa.-based family-owned business is now a full-service international theatrical trans-portation and logistics company. Clark Transfer has moved more than 4,000 productions and traveled more than 350 million miles to bring shows such as Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Spamalot, Mamma Mia and the New York Philharmonic to main streets across America. Earlier this year, Norma Deull Molitch's daughter and now president of Clark Transfer sparked a new initiative for the company's theatrical industry customers. In May, Clark Transfer launched the Touring Green Initiative, designed for touring productions to help offset the environmental impact of taking their shows on the road. It began by my mother making an observation and ask-ing a question, says Charles Deull, executive vice president. She said, `Our trucks travel many miles a year moving the theater industry. We must be emitting quite a lot of carbon impact. What should we do about it?' That question launched a lot of work for us. The Touring Green Initiative Deull began by addressing the impact of the company's emissions from two angles: reduction, and offsetting the impact of what remains. To reduce emissions, Clark Transfer gathered information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's SmartWay program. To fully participate in SmartWay, fleets have to own their power equipment. Even though Clark Transfer's drivers are nearly 100 percent owner-operators, Deull was able to at least use a lot of the program's information. Based on surveys of the fleet's owner-operators, Deull found that the vast majority already were using generators to heat and cool their cabins and reduce fuel usage. Clark Transfer also pays for drivers to use truck stop electrification services, and it provides information to driv-ers about steps they can take to reduce fuel usage and emissions even further, Deull says. Reducing emissions through carbon offsets proved to be more challenging, however. Each year, Clark Transfer travels about 7.5 million miles and burns more than 1 million gallons of diesel. Each gallon of diesel burned emits about 22.5 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Deull looked at more than 35 companies that offered programs to offset carbon emissions before settling on South Burlington, Vt.-based NativeEnergy. Working with NativeEnergy, Clark Transfer developed a custom package of environmental projects to fund in order to offset carbon emissions. The offsets will be generated over time by working through NativeEnergy to invest in new wind turbines, landfill gas projects and methane digesters on American family farms. This carbon offset program, called the Touring Green Initiative, provides a way for companies to offset the impact of carbon emissions from transporting theatrical equipment, Deull says. Clark Transfer designed the Touring Green Initiative to be simple for its customers to use. Customers participate volun-tarily by paying a surcharge of 1.5 cents per loaded mile; the surcharge is added to each freight bill. Clark Transfer created the surcharge based on internal calculations that include innovators Clark Transfer Harrisburg, Pa. Developed a campaign around reducing carbon emissions and offsetting them through a voluntary customer surcharge. The Great Green Way Clark Transfer helps customers help the Earth By Aaron Huff