The international transport and logistics industry has taken a major step forward overenvironmental issues with an agreement at the World Economic Forum over how to measure and report
CO2 emissions at consignment level.The WEF’s Logistics & Transport Industry Group, supported by Accenture, agreed standardguidelines for calculating consignment-level carbon emissions from logistics and shippingoperations. The guidelines include principles for defining the scope of emissions to report and howthese emissions should be allocated in cases such as shared transport or backhaul, thus resolvinguncertainties on scope and allocation.
The Consignment-Level Carbon Reporting Guidelines will help consumers and businesses assessthe carbon impact of transporting products and drive carbon efficiency in the freight and logisticssector, the WEF announced. As part of the Supply Chain Decarbonization Initiative, the guidelineswere endorsed by the Governors of the WEF’s Logistics & Transport Industry Group at the AnnualMeeting in Davos.
The WEF’s Logistics & Transport Industry Group comprises leading international logisticscompanies, including Deutsche Post DHL, FedEx, GeoPost, TNT and UPS as partners, and Aramex, JapanPost, Sagawa Express, Swiss Post and USPS as members. The group’s activities include programmescovering global trade enablement, anti-corruption, supply chain decarbonisation and logisticsemergency teams.
Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post – DHL, described the guidelines as “a practical stepforward for our industry in working with customers to move towards low carbon supply chains.”
“Logistics and transportation providers face growing demand from their retail andmanufacturing customers to report the carbon emissions generated by the shipping and handling ofproducts,” explained Jonathan Wright, senior executive in Accenture’s Supply Chain Managementpractice. “These guidelines will help them work towards providing product-level carbon footprintinformation for their customers.”
“By providing accuracy and consistency in carbon reporting, these guidelines help companiesto compete meaningfully on environmental efficiency,” commented Sean Doherty, Head of Logistics& Transport Industry at the World Economic Forum.
The guidelines complement broader upcoming and existing product-level carbon reportingstandards including the GHG Protocol Life Cycle and Scope 3 Standards expected to be released atthe end of 2010.
