Smart Freight Centre and WBCSD announce a new initiative co-developed with 25+ global companies to advance the quantification of logistics emissions and support the logistics industry on their journey to net-zero emissions.
Amsterdam, Geneva, 29 March 2022 – Smart Freight Centre and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) are united in a mission to increase transparency on carbon emissions and work towards a net-zero logistics sector. Supported by the World Economic Forum, with McKinsey & Company providing analytical insights and advisory guidance and in partnership with over 25 leading global organizations, this consortium is taking the next steps in achieving net-zero logistics by co-developing an actionable and implementable guidance to quantify the impact of GHG logistics emissions from supplier to final customer; from end-to-end.
This guidance builds upon and complements two existing frameworks. The first being the Smart Freight Centre’s Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) Framework 2.0 – the globally recognized methodology for accounting and reporting of logistics emissions. The second being the WBCSD’s Pathfinder Framework – the guidance for accounting and exchange of product life cycle emissions.
The objective is to enable companies to better understand and track their carbon emissions on a granular operational level, enhance industry collaboration and support businesses in the implementation of their decarbonization strategies and achievement of net-zero targets. To fit and meet the industry’s need when decarbonizing their entire logistics carbon footprint, this guidance spans across the entire supply – from supplier to customer. Through co-development all partners can bring forward different use cases and associated business challenges in quantifying logistics emissions, the guidance will be practical and applicable to support each organization’s decarbonization strategy. The guidance will be published by the end of 2022, with an intended formal launch during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, January 2023.
The organizations that participate in this initiative are:
A.P. Moller – Maersk, ADEME, Aldi Süd, Amazon, APL Logistics, ArcelorMittal, CMA CGM, Colgate-Palmolive, Convoy, DOW Chemical, DPDgroup, Deutsche Post DHL Group, EcoTransIT World, European Shippers Council, Kuehne+Nagel, Nestlé, PSA International, Posti, project44, Scania, Selfridges, Siemens, TK Blue Agency, Uber, Unilever, UPS, Volkswagen.
“As a global provider of end-to-end logistics services across all transport modes, it is a strategic imperative for Maersk to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. To ensure significant emissions reductions already in this decade, we have set clear and ambitious 2030 targets across our logistics operations. Having the right common standards for the whole logistics value chain in place is crucial to be able to reach our goals in time while seamlessly supporting our customers’ decarbonization needs. Once fully developed, this guidance will be an accurate method to first, allocate emissions to our customers and secondly, guide us on what we should ask our vendors to report on,” says Morten Bo Christiansen, Head of Decarbonization at A.P. Moller – Maersk.
Dr. Klaus Hufschlag, Senior Vice President CREST Finance Business Intelligence & Analytics, Deutsche Post DHL Group: “Transparency is a key enabler for efficient decision making and meaningful action to combat the climate crisis. Global supply chains include a wide range of players. They all need to work together to reduce emissions in transportation. We are proud to work with our customers, peers and experienced organizations on a guide to facilitate the exchange and communication throughout the value chain.”
“This initiative is an important step in raising the bar and standardizing how existing frameworks track carbon emissions in the transportation sector,” said Susan Beverly, Director of Partnerships & Engagement at Amazon. “As a co-founder and the first signatory of The Climate Pledge, Amazon set a goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2040 and we’re proud to see other signatories and key industry players coming on board to also support this initiative.”
“At Unilever, we are committed to achieving net zero emissions across our value chain by 2039. Reducing emissions from our logistics operations is crucial, and while we have achieved a 43% reduction in carbon intensity since 2010, we need to take this further. That’s why it’s imperative we work with key partners like the Smart Freight Centre and WBSCD. By adopting and developing this end-to-end industry standard, we can bring even more transparency and understanding to the logistics emissions across our value chain, with the ultimate aim of delivering on our climate commitments to consumers”. Laurent-David Charbit, Head of Sustainability to Supply Chain.
Claire Martin, CMA CGM Vice-President Sustainability commented: “The CMA CGM Group, a global leader in shipping and logistics, is deeply committed to the energy transition and the decarbonization of its activities. CMA CGM will be using the GLEC Framework for its future Searoutes eco calculator. This new guidance will enable CMA CGM to beneficiate a more efficient tool to better understand and track its carbon emission. This will be an important step forward for the Group and for its customers as part of its commitment to become Net Zero Carbon by 2050.”
About Smart Freight Centre:
Smart Freight Centre is an international non-profit organization focused on reducing greenhouse gas emission from freight transportation. We collaborate with our global partners to quantify impacts, identify solutions, and propagate logistics decarbonization strategies.
We achieve our goals by:
- Enabling performance measuring of GHG logistics emissions to drive transparency and accountability of organizations
- Facilitating solution pathways and catalyzing collaboration between logistics stakeholders to share knowledge and create impact together
- Educating, training, and scaling-up organizations in the logistics sector to accelerate the uptake of decarbonization solutions.
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