Freight is a massive contributor to carbon pollution.
We should all be trying to reduce and offset our carbon emissions. Customers are demanding it, and governments are starting to legislate on it. And it’s the right thing to do to make the earth a great place for our kids to live.
Even though it’s what we should all be doing, at the moment, measuring carbon emissions in freight is tricky. Collecting accurate data makes it hard to know exactly how much carbon you should be offsetting in order to balance things out.
But tricky, doesn’t mean impossible.
While carbon measurement is a big challenge for the freight industry, at Freight People, we’re leading the way in reducing, managing and offsetting carbon.
Here’s the things we’re doing right now to tackle the carbon challenge.
The Carbon Calculator Project
As part of our leadership in carbon measurement for freight, we’ve been working with Swinburne University to develop a Carbon Calculator.
Our Carbon Calculator uses a series of assumptions to help your company estimate the amount of carbon emitted for the freight you want to send.
For example, if you’re sending a pallet by air freight, the Carbon Calculator will show you the carbon emissions of that choice, versus the carbon emissions involved in choosing a road freight option. This allows your business to send freight via the method that will have the least carbon impact on the planet.
When you can start to understand the carbon impact of your freight at the time of booking, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about how you want to send things.
And once you’ve estimated your carbon, you can then offset that with a carbon offset provider.
We’re Certified Carbon Neutral.
As a member of Climate Active { https://www.climateactive.org.au/buy-climate-active/certified-members/freight-people}, Freight People are Certified Carbon Neutral.
We’re committed to leading the freight industry in carbon management, reduction and offsetting. Our ongoing Carbon Neutral Certification, which must be renewed each year, is a demonstration of this commitment.
Choosing Carbon Conscious Carriers
As specialists with decades of experience in freight management, our team are able to help you choose carriers that are more carbon conscious.
There’s still a long way to go when it comes to carriers implementing more environmentally friendly methods of freight, and some are more focused on it than others.
If focusing on carbon reduction is important to you (and it should be), then our team can help you find the right solution for your freight.
Making Your Freight More Environmentally Friendly
When it comes to reducing the carbon impact of your freight, there’s more than just carrier choice to consider.
We can work with you to help you improve the amount of carbon you’re using throughout your whole supply chain, including how you pack your goods for transport, and how you can choose the right service for more efficient, and less carbon impact delivery.
Business Intelligence for Carbon Measurement.
Through the Carbon Calculator, we’re able to help our customers to track their carbon capture estimates.
We measure estimated carbon emissions at a consignment level in real time, so you can see how much carbon your freight will create at the time of booking.
This detail allows you to report on carbon emissions on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You’ll also be able to see reporting by state and distribution centre.
Over time, as carriers differentiate themselves with lower emission trucks and other carbon reduction and offsetting initiatives, you’ll be able to choose a freight carrier, based on the estimated carbon.
Commitment to Continuous Improvement
When it comes to carbon measurement, Freight People are committed to continuous improvement. The more we refine, the more accurate the data will become, and the bigger impact we can have on reducing and offsetting carbon in the freight industry.
We’re working on building the capability of the Carbon Calculator to refine our assumptions around trucks - breaking measurement into multi-leg journeys for each consignment so we can get a more accurate picture of the carbon impact.
By having a multi-leg calculator, you'll be able to calculate the pickup carbon cost, to the estimated depot, the linehaul carbon cost for interstate, and then the last mile carbon cost to your final destination. And by getting the three split components and estimating at each, you get a far more accurate figure than if you were just to go from point A to point B using one truck – because we all know that that's not what trucks do.
Carbon Estimates are just the beginning for the Freight Industry
While we wait for the technology and the industry as a whole to deliver on accurate carbon measurement, we can still take positive action with the tools we have.
By using the Carbon Calculator to estimate and offset carbon emissions, and taking action on making smarter freight choices that reduce the carbon we create in the first place, we can all start the journey towards reducing the impact of the freight industry on planet earth.
If you’d like to find out how Freight People can help your business reduce your carbon footprint through smarter freight, get in touch with our team today.