Chiquita Brands International, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., announced plans to reduce energy consumption of its more than 15,000 40-foot container fleet. In 2009, Chiquita began a comprehensive refrigerated container upgrade program, which has led to an annual reduction of 17,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

The new containers require less energy, are equipped with greenhouse-friendly refrigerants and boast insulation materials that lead to a reduced emission footprint.

Prior to January 2015, Chiquita replaced 7,000 units. Between January 2015 and December 2017, Chiquita replaced 4,570 older containers with 5,700 new ones. Despite the 25% increase in the overall number of containers, Chiquita achieved an 11% reduction in electricity consumption.

With each new container, Chiquita achieves an energy savings of up to 35% compared to the energy spent on older containers. Even greater is the amount of energy saved with solutions from Quest Software, Inc., Aliso Viejo, Calif., that automatically shuts down the container compressor without affecting the quality of the stored fruit.

“Looking back over these past years’ work with the container fleet upgrade, we can proudly say we have achieved our goal,” says Jamie Postell, director of sales North America. “We’ve saved an equivalent of the CO2 emitted by 3,000 cars per year – that’s no small feat.”

As a result of these improvements, Chiquita achieved an electricity savings of 34 million kilowatt hours per year. In sustainability terms, this leads to an annual reduction of 17,000 tons of CO2 emissions.