Yard Smart part of Sainsbury's carbon neutral DC

(December 2007) Yard Smart went live in the Sainsbury's Northampton yard. The brand new site has laid claim to the title of the greenest site in Europe – implementing numerous technologies to optimize the use of resources wherever possible, from collecting rainwater to incorporating a photovoltaic wall in the building that converts solar energy to help power the warehouse. Yard Smart is also playing a role in helping them maintain this commitment at their carbon neutral site. The savings can be seen in the optimization of shunt moves, reducing unnecessary driving around the yard searching for trailers by keeping the yard in order and providing specific origins and destinations for every move. The system also ensures that the shunters operate in the most efficient way possible around the yard.

The decreased time of transaction at the gate has also realized benefits. The queue at the gate is shorter and moves more quickly so trucks do not idle in the lane for as long. By minimizing the idle time of tractors and unproductive driving of shunt trucks around the yard, Yard Smart has helped Sainsbury's decrease the size of its carbon footprint.

Part of Sainsbury's green initiative is also to keep the use of paper down to a minimum. Yard Smart is also helping stem the flow of paperwork around the site. Shunters do not use shunt sheets, the gate doesn't need to print gate passes, and Yard Smart generates and exports reports on yard activity in an electronic format.

C3 Solutions is proud to be a part of Sainsbury's plan to go green.