Union Pacific

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

E-Waste

If improperly disposed, computers, phones and other electronic goods can create environmental hazards. Union Pacific makes it a practice to recycle electronics that have reached the end of their useful life, commonly known as e-waste. The company recycled or distributed more than 500,000 pounds of electronic equipment and nearly 1.2 million pounds of signal batteries in 2011.

We also realize that just because an electronic device is no longer useful for Union Pacific, that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to anyone else. Union Pacific’s re-use initiative aims to find new homes for our used electronics. That includes re-selling some devices and providing equipment to nonprofit organizations in developing countries. In 2011, the initiative found new homes for 16 percent of Union Pacific’s used electronic assets – nearly 2,500 devices.

Paper

Like any large company, we have a lot of paperwork – and in many cases, this translates into a lot of paper consumption. We’re working to reduce our overall paper consumption. We’ve programmed our printers to use both sides of each piece of paper. We’ve also refined the layout of the “flight plan” our locomotive engineers are required by the federal government to receive at the beginning of each train run. This document includes information such as the contents of each car, and we found a way to include all the important information while making the document shorter and less paper-intensive.

Employee Stewardship

Union Pacific’s employees play a role in our efforts to reuse and recycle materials. We try to make it easier for everyone to conserve materials by providing education and training on topics like recycling guidelines and fuel conservation, and by providing recycling at 150 of our locations in nearly 80 cities across the country.

Union Pacific recycled more than 3,000 tons of paper, cardboard, plastics and other solid waste in 2011. That’s the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions that provide electricity to more than 400 homes for a year. We also recycled more than a quarter million tons of metal.

Our employees care about and understand how to cut waste and improve Union Pacific’s environmental stewardship. Starting in 2008, we’ve tapped into this knowledge base through a process for employees to suggest tips and ideas for improving our sustainability. So far, we’ve received more than 1,200 ideas and more than 40 percent of these have led to changes in our programs and processes.

Fuel and Oil

We use processes and equipment that allow us to recycle 100 percent of the used oil and fuel captured at our fueling and servicing facilities. This includes drip pans and other collection systems under our engines to catch spills, separators that extract engine oil from wastewater, and automatic fuel nozzles that shut off when a tank is full, preventing overflow. In 2011, we recycled more than 4 million gallons of oil and fuel.

Railroad Ties

The wooden railroad tie has been a staple of our infrastructure for 150 years. In recent years, Union Pacific has been laying a new type of composite railroad ties, made of 100 percent recycled material and 100 percent recyclable at the end of their useful lives. These ties are particularly effective in regions like the Gulf Coast, where moisture and insects shorten the useful life of traditional wooden ties. To understand these ties in a tangible way, each tie represents the equivalent of 1,100 1-gallon plastic milk jugs being recycled. Union Pacific has laid more than 200,000 composite ties in the last four years, the equivalent of 220 million 1-gallon milk jugs being recycled.

LED Locomotive Lights

Union Pacific is working on an employee-initiated project to convert our locomotive fleet's incandescent bulbs to Light Emitting Diodes (LED). LEDs are 90 percent more energy efficient than traditional light bulbs. Electricity for locomotive lighting is powered by the diesel engine. With more than 90,000 bulbs in our locomotive fleet, this conversion represents a significant undertaking and the potential for meaningful energy savings.

Results Speak for Themselves

Between 2007 and 2011, we reduced total paper purchases from more than 300 million sheets to almost 180 million – a decrease of more than 120 million.