Keaton PetersVirginia is expected to become home to the most environmentally friendly railway corridor in the nation. Norfolk Southern and the Port of Virginia have launched the nation’s first “RailGreen Corridor,” an emissions reduction program that will reduce supply chain environmental impacts for shippers. The corridor connects Norfolk Harbor with the Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal via Norfolk Southern’s rail network, creating the first dedicated low-emission freight connection between an East Coast port and an inland terminal.
The initiative, part of Norfolk Southern’s new RailGreen program, leverages blockchain technology and environmental attribute certificates to deliver verified emission reductions for cargo owners. Companies face increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprints across all business operations, and transportation emissions remain one of the most challenging areas to address. The RailGreen Corridor tackles this problem directly by creating a verifiable system for reducing and tracking Scope 3 emissions—the indirect emissions that occur throughout a company’s value chain, which typically account for the majority of a business’s carbon footprint.
The program operates through a certificate system. Norfolk Southern generates RailGreen certificates through low-carbon biofuel use in its locomotives. Customers can purchase these certificates to apply toward their supply chain emissions, and as demand increases, Norfolk Southern commits to acquiring more biofuel. The system is backed by blockchain technology from 123Carbon, an independent book-and-claim platform that ensures each metric ton of reduced emissions is tracked and verified against international standards.
The RailGreen program builds upon Norfolk Southern’s existing sustainability initiatives, which include increased biofuel usage, solar power for rail yards and deployment of hybrid locomotives. Norfolk Southern’s rail network spans 22 states and helps customers avoid approximately 15 million tons of carbon emissions annually by choosing rail transport over alternatives.
For the Port of Virginia, this partnership reinforces its position as a leader in port sustainability. The port has already distinguished itself as the first on the East Coast to power all its terminals with 100% clean energy, resulting in the lowest emissions profile of any East Coast port.
The Virginia Inland Port, located in Front Royal, serves as a crucial inland extension of the Port of Virginia’s marine terminals in Norfolk Harbor. This intermodal facility allows cargo to move between trucks and trains at an inland location, reducing congestion at the maritime terminals and offering more flexible transportation options for shippers to reach locations across a broader region.
The importance of this corridor is economic as well as environmental. According to a recent economic impact study from The College of William & Mary, the Port of Virginia helps create nearly 437,000 jobs and generates more than $100 billion in total economic impact throughout Virginia annually.
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Accidental Nomad via Wikimedia Commons
