Sean Laidacker, co-founder and managing director of 3PL Loyalty Logistics, says he’s always been passionate about sustainability and reducing the impact of supply chain emissions on the environment through out-of-the-box solutions.
That passion is apparent in the Montreal-based company’s approach to sustainability.
The 7-year-old company recently launched a sustainability initiative that includes planting a minimum of 20,000 trees by the end of 2024, using oxygen-producing paint on partner carrier trailers and creating Miyawaki pocket forests in urban areas of Mexico.
Loyalty Logistics, which provides truckload and consolidated services across the U.S., Canada and Mexico through its own trucks and a network of carriers, has offices in Montreal, Chicago and Monterrey, Mexico.
“When we talk more about sustainability at Loyalty, we’re trying to do different variations pertaining to the 17 sustainable development goals [SDGs] listed by the United Nations,” Laidacker told FreightWaves in an interview. “Sustainability is a big part of it for us. But we have other social programs that we are focused on.”
In 2015, the United Nations unveiled its 17 SDGs, a road map for ending poverty, protecting the planet and tackling inequalities. That inspired Loyalty Logistics’ sustainability initiative.
But Loyalty Logistics is also embarking on an animal welfare project in Mexico. The company is partnering with a major U.S. pet care company to build a dog rescue in Monterrey.
Laidacker said the goal is to partner with customers on these initiatives.
“We’re asking for our customers to pledge to us, and be willing to commit volumes from now until 2030,” Laidacker said. “What we are going to give them in return is that we’re going to continuously be giving new and creative features to be able to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s important to know that we are not charging a cent to any of our customers for any of these initiatives.”
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Using oxygen-producing paint on tractor-trailers
As part of Loyalty Logistics’ clean air campaign, the company is using nanotechnology coating on its partner-carriers’ trailers so they can produce oxygen equivalent to that produced by 236 mature trees daily, Laidacker said.
“Essentially it’s a clear coat, whose original purpose was to utilize it in Japan to coat surfaces, so that the COVID virus would not attach itself to any surfaces, railings, walls, whatever you may need. But lo and behold, they realized that it actually has a lot of powers pertaining to eliminating carbon and pollutants,” Laidacker said. “It absorbs pollutants and then when the sun hits the paint, there’s a chemical reaction that then turns the pollutants either into oxygen or water.”
Laidacker said the paint wasn’t created specifically for the trucking industry, but he sees the sector benefiting nonetheless.
Loyalty Logistics is using nanotechnology coating to paint trailers in order to produce oxygen equivalent to that produced by 236 mature trees daily. (Photo: Loyalty Logistics)
By the end of 2024, Loyalty Logistics aims to apply the oxygen-producing paint to more than 1,000 tractor-trailers, or over 2.1 million square feet of surfaces, generating the oxygen output of 240,000 mature trees daily, the company said.
Loyalty Logistics currently has about 10 tractor-trailers coated with the special paint. The company is working with a Tennessee company to coat 85 to 90 trailers.
“I just can’t believe this product hasn’t been utilized more so in the past. Nobody thought to put this on a truck in the market and make it like a rolling air cleaner,” Laidacker said. “We have orders in process already being flown to Monterrey and Mexico City. Avery Dennison wants us to apply it to one of their trailer fleets and get started right away.”
Planting trees and creating pocket forests
Loyalty Logistics has recently secured about 5 acres of agricultural land near the Mexican city of Guadalajara. The company plans to create a pocket forest or Miyawaki urban forest — a small forest using native plants that can be created in urban spaces.
The forests were developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki to restore biodiversity, help clean air and fight climate change impacts in urban environments where land is scarce.
“We’re going to be creating a Miyawaki in the middle of farmland,” Laidacker said. “We want to make it a place where people can come for the day. We’re going have a lot of educational aspects so people understand the complexities, the vegetation.”
Loyalty Logistics is also looking at creating a Miyawaki urban forest in Monterrey, Mexico.
“The good thing about the Miyawaki forests is that we’re mandating our customers that they have to be involved. They’re not just going to say, ‘I want a forest’ and then we send them a picture of the forest,” Laidacker said. “No, if you want the forest, you bring manpower. We will match your manpower with Loyalty Logistics manpower, and then we’re going to get our hands dirty.”
The Miyawaki forests will have botanists on-site who will help with the planting, Laidacker said.
“They’re going to be able to explain a lot of why we’re doing what we’re doing and what the benefits of the plants are,” Laidacker said. “At the end of the day, no matter what we do, we all understand that education is the thing that’s going to resonate the loudest.”
Creating dog rescues in Mexico
Although animal welfare is not typically associated with sustainability initiatives, Laidacker and Loyalty Logistics are also creating dog rescues in Monterrey and Guadalajara.
He said the idea came to him after seeing stray dogs in his travels throughout Mexico.
“When you go to Mexico, you can see these stray dogs running on the streets everywhere, and that just kind of killed me,” Laidacker said. “We’re trying to find a place where instead of the vets euthanizing the animals, they can send them there.”
Loyalty Logistics is partnering with McLean, Virginia-based Mars Petcare to build two dog refuges in Mexico.
“We’ve had conversations with Mars Petcare, which is a huge shipper, and they are looking to join us to create animal refuges,” Laidacker said. “One is in Guadalajara and another one is going to be in Monterrey. They’re going to give us 50% of the capital to create these facilities, and they’re going to provide us with all the food and toys that we need for these animals for a five-year contract.”
Laidacker’s love of dogs was actually on display at FreightWaves’ 2023 F3 Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The event featured a puppy playpen with animals that were up for adoption from a local organization.
Laidacker paid for every puppy’s adoption fee at the event.
“I’m a dog guy and seeing all the puppies there kind of broke my heart,” Laidacker said. “I decided to pay the adoption fees for all the dogs that were there.”
Sean Laidacker, co-founder and managing partner of Loyalty Logistics, paid all the adoption fees for the puppies available at FreightWaves’ 2023 F3 Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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