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The Issue  | Avoid & Reduce | Offset

What's the issue?

Mobile phones, the internet and email have all helped to create a fast-paced business environment and we have similar expectations for the distribution of products and materials associated with our businesses.

But this demand for fast delivery comes at a cost to the environment.  Transporting goods by air freight generates 0.57 kilograms of CO₂-e per metric tonne of material for every kilometre travelled, while transporting via sea freight generates just 0.01 kg CO₂-e per tonne per km (GHG Protocol Mobile Combustion CO₂ Emissions Calculation Tool, 2005)

So the speed of air freight needs to be weighed up against its greater impact on global greenhouse gas concentrations, with 57 times the emissions of the slower sea freight alternative.

How to avoid and reduce emissions

Here are some ideas to avoid and reduce emissions.  Check out our sustainable transport guide for businesses for more ideas and inspiration.

• Consider the real 'need' for immediate or fast-tracked delivery - can you wait for a regular scheduled delivery instead of requesting an additional trip?
  
• Is there a local bicycle courier service for delivering small items short distances?
  
• Can you plan business activities or monitor sales patterns to allow for lower emissions, but longer timeframe freight options?  Shipping items overseas is much better for the climate, but obviously takes much longer.
  
• Plan your deliveries outside of peak periods on the roads - why waste fuel in stop-start traffic?  This will also save valuable time.
  
• Try to reduce the number of empty vehicles on the roads. Why send two trucks in opposite directions on one route, each with an empty load on their return trip?  Develop a multi-directional distribution system instead, returning waste or carrying different products on the way back.  Make use of a freight matching service like FillMyTruck to find an available truck for your freight, or freight for your empty truck.
  
• Educate your clients about the emissions intensity of fast-tracked deliveries and encourage them to plan around lower emission deliveries too.  Rail and sea freight offer significant emissions savings over air-freight.

Offset the rest

Calculating the emissions associated with your freight and distribution is quite challenging unless you actually own the vehicles doing the dstribution and pay for the fuel being consumed.  If this is the case you can use our Tree Totaller  to calculate these emissions by selecting the Car Only option and then entering your fuel data through the Detailed section.  Once you have calculated your emissions, submit the calculations and one of our Business Offsets Managers will arrange a quote to offset.

If you don't have fuel consumption data we recommend you start to ask questions of your suppliers to help collect this information into the future. 

Or you can choose Greenfleet supporters who are already taking responsibility for the emissions generated in their business.  Find Greenfleet supporters who could work with your business.