Cummins has discovered a new climate breakthrough. Not fewer emissions. Not fewer diesel gensets. Not fewer excuses. Just a maintenance agreement. Pay them to keep your kit “efficient” and apparently the carbon fairy shows up and forgives the rest.
The Carbon Maths Trick
This is the classic Cummins move. Take something normal, routine, and commercially useful, then hose it down with green language until it squeaks.
Planned Equipment Maintenance is not a moonshot. It is servicing. It is oil, filters, inspections, diagnostics, schedule adherence. Necessary, sensible, boring.
Cummins dresses it up like a sustainability initiative. As if a well-maintained generator somehow becomes morally clean. It does not. It just runs better while it keeps doing the same job.
PEM Means Pay Every Month
Call it what it is. A recurring revenue contract.
They are not selling “care”. They are selling lock-in. Planned intervals, “expert” visits, monitoring, lifecycle milestones. It is a subscription wrapped in a hard hat.
And yes, it will be pitched as peace of mind. Reliability. Durability. “Ready to start when needed most”. The language is designed to make you feel irresponsible if you do not sign.
It is guilt marketing for facilities managers.
Digital Diagnostics, Old Smoke
They keep leaning on “state-of-the-art” and “latest digital diagnostic tools”. Fine. A modern spanner with a Bluetooth badge.
But nothing in this piece explains the dirty part, because the dirty part is the product. A genset is not a yoga retreat. It is an engine. It burns. It emits. It exists because the grid is not trusted, the infrastructure is stretched, and the industry wants redundancy without accountability.
So Cummins pretends “efficiency” is the destination. It is not. It is a mitigation tactic.
Destination Zero As A Sticker
Destination Zero is the brand. It is the glossy wrap.
Here they bolt it to servicing like a cheap spoiler on a fast car. Suddenly, your maintenance agreement is aligned with “sustainability goals and growth strategy”. Growth strategy. That is the tell. Growth is the mission. “Zero” is the costume.
If you can turn a service plan into a moral purchase, you can sell it harder, defend it easier, and charge more for it. Simple.
“All Makes And Models” Is The Grift
They brag they can service gensets “of all makes and models”. Translation: they will happily monetise your entire fleet, even if it is not theirs.
That is not environmental leadership. That is aftermarket conquest.
And it is clever. You get them on site for the competitor kit, and suddenly the upgrade conversation starts. New contracts. New replacements. New “solutions”.
The maintenance agreement becomes the sales funnel. Smooth. Cold. Effective.
Alternative Fuels “Soon” And EV Charging, Because Of Course
Then comes the “soon” paragraph. Alternative fuels. EV charging solutions. The magic words thrown in like salt to hide the taste.
This is Cummins doing what it always does. Promise a cleaner future while monetising the present. Keep the diesel cash flowing. Keep the narrative floating.
If you want a slogan for this piece, it is simple.
More monitoring. More invoices. Same emissions. Just better maintained.
Closing Time
Cummins is not pushing Destination Zero here. It is pushing Destination Aftermarket.
Planned maintenance is good practice. Nobody disputes that. What is obscene is the attempt to rebrand basic servicing as climate action, like a filter change is a confession and absolution rolled into one.
Keep your agreements. Keep your diagnostics. Keep your shiny “purpose” language.
I will keep pointing at the business model under the paint.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project