ATHENS, Ga., April 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Carrier Transicold is celebrating a double anniversary this year: 75 years of Carrier road transport refrigeration innovation and the 45th anniversary of the Carrier Transicold business. Carrier Transicold helps improve global transport and shipping of temperature controlled cargoes with a complete line of equipment for refrigerated trucks, trailers and containers, and is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
"Carrier's history encompasses more than a century of innovation in air conditioning and refrigeration, and pioneering achievements in truck and trailer refrigeration have been an integral part of this story," said David Appel, president, Carrier Transicold & Refrigeration Systems. "Now in our 75th year of providing products for road transport refrigeration, we continue to drive the industry forward with high-performance, environmentally sustainable refrigeration solutions."
The Carrier Transicold brand began in 1970, when Carrier acquired the California-based transport refrigeration equipment maker Transicold Co. and combined it with its Special Products Division, which had experience in trucking applications extending back to 1940, to form Carrier Transicold. The business was responsible for all types of transport refrigeration, including ocean-going container refrigeration that it had pioneered in 1968.
"Our products have long served an important need, delivering food and other temperature-sensitive goods to expanding population centers," said Appel. "It's a heritage we're proud of and one that we intend to build further with more sustainable and innovative transport refrigeration solutions. This is what truly excites us, to serve a higher purpose of making life better for people around the world."
Today, Carrier Transicold is developing sustainable solutions to preserve the cold chain in emerging and developed countries. The cold chain, which includes marine container, truck, trailer and retail refrigeration, enables perishables such as fruits and vegetables to remain fresh for safe consumption from farm to store. The cold chain plays a role in preserving global food supply, but according to a new study by the University of Nottingham, only 10 percent of perishable foods are refrigerated worldwide. This offers significant opportunity for more than 50 percent of global food loss and waste to benefit from refrigeration.
Globally, 805 million people don't have enough to eat, yet one-third or more of all food produced never reaches consumers due to spoilage and waste, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The retail value of food loss and waste is estimated by the FAO to be worth $1 trillion (USD) per year, equivalent to twice the GDP of Norway.
"It's difficult to imagine a more inefficient system," said John Mandyck, chief sustainability officer, UTC Building & Industrial Systems. "If food waste were a country on its own, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. A green cold chain is an essential strategy to extend food supplies and reduce the significant emissions produced by food waste every year."
According to the study, a modest 25 percent reduction in fruit and vegetable loss in four countries (China, India, Pakistan and Kenya – as investigated by the Nottingham study) would provide:
- Enough energy for up to 22 million people per year;
- The equivalent iron content for up to 66 million people; and,
- Vitamin A content for up to 70 million people.
In India alone, an estimated $2 billion worth of fruits and vegetables goes to waste each year because of a lack of an integrated cold chain. Carrier Transicold's latest line of Citifresh™ truck refrigeration units is designed specifically for countries like India to meet the challenges of transporting fresh food long distances.
"We can meet the food needs of a growing planet with a simple equation — waste less, feed more — with substantial benefits to the natural environment," Mandyck said.
About Carrier Transicold
Carrier Transicold helps improve transport and shipping of temperature controlled cargoes with a complete line of equipment and services for refrigerated transport and cold chain visibility. Carrier Transicold has been an industry leader for 45 years, providing customers around the world with the most advanced, energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable container refrigeration systems and generator sets, direct-drive and diesel truck units, and trailer refrigeration systems. Carrier Transicold is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp., a leading provider to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide. Visit www.transicold.carrier.com for more information. Follow Carrier on Twitter: @CarrierGreen.
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SOURCE Carrier Corp.