Carrier was recently featured on the EARTH docuseries. The episode takes viewers inside Carrier’s innovation journey. Watch the full episode or skip ahead to the 18:30 mark, where they spotlight transport refrigeration.
When Willis Carrier invented the modern air conditioning system in 1902, he launched an industry that fundamentally changed how we live, work, and play. Today, Carrier has evolved far beyond a residential products company into a global provider of intelligent climate and energy solutions. Some of its most critical, life-saving work happens in transport refrigeration.
Through its advanced cold chain and transport refrigeration solutions, Carrier is quietly tackling one of the most pressing crises of our time: the global waste of food and medicine.
The Hidden Crisis: Food and Medicine Waste
We often take refrigerated transportation for granted, but the lack of ubiquitous temperature-controlled logistics globally has devastating consequences:
- Humanitarian Impact: While hundreds of millions of people go hungry each day, approximately one-third of all food grown globally is lost, often due to inadequate refrigeration or storage. Furthermore, without reliable cold transit, there is massive spoilage of life-saving vaccines and pharmaceuticals.
- Environmental Toll: Food loss and waste generate up to 4.4 gigatons of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Carrier’s Transport Refrigeration: Connecting the Cold Chain
To combat this massive loss, Carrier Transicold provides the technological backbone needed to keep perishables safe from farm to table. A vast portion of the food and drugs consumed worldwide is transported using Carrier Transicold equipment.
Carrier’s comprehensive cold chain solutions include:
- Advanced Transport Refrigeration: Carrier Transicold manufactures highly efficient refrigeration systems designed specifically for trucks, trailers, and shipping containers.
- Sensitech Sensors & Monitoring: Carrier Transicold integrates Sensitech sensors to create an advanced, connected cold chain. This technology allows transportation companies to meticulously control, monitor, and maintain necessary environmental conditions in real-time, minimizing transit losses.
Empowering Global Communities: The ACES Initiative
Carrier Transicold’s vision extends to empowering developing regions to build sustainable infrastructure. A prime example is their partnership with the Africa Center of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) in East Africa.
ACES serves as a comprehensive hub for cold chain technology assistance, featuring a testing center, smart farm, and telematics training facility. Carrier Transicold actively supports this program by donating state-of-the-art equipment, such as transport refrigeration trainers, to give students, technicians, and farmers hands-on experience.
By providing local workers with the expertise to maintain and operate these systems, Carrier Transicold is helping to build a future where the cold chain functions as an essential service—accessible to everyone, including those in remote rural communities, much like water, electricity, and the internet.
A Company of Impact
Operating in about 160 countries with nearly 50,000 employees, Carrier is driven by a purpose to enhance the lives we live and the world we share. By transforming the global cold chain, Carrier Transicold is proving that intelligent climate solutions are not just about keeping us comfortable—they are about nourishing communities, protecting life-saving medicines, and building a more sustainable planet for generations to come.