Decarbonization

Before COVID-19, freight transportation accounted for almost 10% of all global carbon emissions. While this stalled a bit during the pandemic due to travel restrictions, carbon emissions from freight transportation are projected to climb as the global economy recovers and e-commerce booms. To play an active part in the trend of Decarbonization, logistics organizations must focus on reducing emissions from vehicles in first-, middle-, and last-mile operations.

Electrification is an effective go-to solution across all transportation modes. In 2021, DHL Express ordered 12 electric airplanes from Israeli company Eviation to achieve emissions-free regional flights. In that same year, truck manufacturer Continental Automotive broke a world record with its electric delivery truck travelling almost 1,100 km (682 mi) on a single charge, while in early 2022, Ford released its E-Transit courier vans with a range of about 200 km (126 mi), 70% more than the average daily service range needed for such vehicles in the US. Furthermore, electric bicycles, tricycles, and scooters have been scaled in delivery operations around the world.

Although electrifying fleets is a powerful way for logistics industry players to reduce the carbon footprint, each transportation mode has different time horizons for viable electric alternatives. This means that for some modes, especially those carrying heavier loads and covering greater distances, it may make more sense for logistics leaders to investigate alternative fuels as near-term solutions to reduce, but not eliminate, carbon emissions in their supply chains. These can range from traditional biofuels like ethanol to renewable diesel, as well as sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) that act as ‘drop-in’ fuels to be mixed with traditional fossil jet fuel.

Whether offsetting CO₂e emissions elsewhere through insetting or making the supply chain carbon negative, carbon capture technology helps logistics organizations meet sustainability goals. While today much attention is on newly constructed experimental facilities specifically designed to absorb CO₂ from the air, logistics professionals can apply several existing and upcoming practical solutions to the supply chain.

American startup Remora, for example, has developed a truck tailpipe filter that is able to capture up to 80% of CO₂ emitted, while Aramco is looking into adapting its own car-based carbon capture solution to ocean freighters. Solutions such as these often deliver a favorable return on investment (ROI) for interested logistics organizations as both the collected CO₂ and the associated carbon credits are commodities that can be sold to recoup costs. In this way, carbon capture technology can provide lower-cost solutions for decarbonizing supply chains.

Environmentally friendly solutions may be overlooked or rejected because of higher initial costs than more wasteful alternatives. Although many logistics organizations may want to replace whole truck fleets with electric models or cover an entire warehouse rooftop with solar panels, moves like this represent a significant investment. However, with customer demand for greater sustainability in the supply chain and with CO₂e emissions becoming more commoditized and framed as operating costs, logistics players are finding ways to simultaneously reduce expenditure and waste.

For example, last-mile service providers can use German startup Greenplan’s route optimization software to reduce the distance vehicles travel. In doing so, they save on time, fuel, wear and tear, and maintenance costs, plus they achieve a reduction in CO₂ emissions that is almost proportional to the travel saved. Similar principles can be applied when upgrading machinery to more efficient models – a unit of resource (electricity, gas, paper, etc.) is utilized more fully and with fewer emissions when manufacturing and using the new model.