According to current statistics from a variety of sources, in aggregate, transport is responsible for about one-fifth (21% actually) of Greenhous Gas (GHG) emissions. Road travel is purported to account for almost three-quarters (74.5%) of transport emissions. Whilst most of this comes from passenger vehicles (45.1%), some 29.4% is purported to come from road freight transportation of goods. Break that down, and the GHG emissions from road freight transportation is roughly equal to 4.6% of total GHG emissions.
Taking a look at gov.uk statistics, in 2022 (which reported on 2020), Transport accounted for 24% of the UK’s total GHG emissions, of which 19% of this came from HGVs, and 16% from vans. This equates to 4.56% of the UK’s total GHG emissions for HGVs alone, but 8.4% if you also include vans.
It takes a long time to gather such statistics and, in some respects, (at least on this page) should be considered indicative, and not to be relied upon for reporting purposes. But whichever way you look at them, road freight transport has a significant impact on the environment, and with this comes responsibility, or at the very least measurability.
In terms of measurability, we have developed a CO₂ calculator module within our bespoke freight software which we call the CO₂ulator. This is able to calculate CO₂e emissions for each job, considering all parts of its journey. An added advantage of using our sister company’s domestic transport provides us greater control and accuracy at a domestic level as opposed to using average data such as ‘general HGV / average laden’. Similarly, working closely with our foreign partners, we hope to be able to use more precise data where available. And additionally, by calculating all other emissions which are unrelated to transport, these can also be prorated if required, to provide a much fuller picture.
Scope 3 emissions are the hardest of all emissions to calculate, being third party provisions. We are not mandated to provide reports on emissions, but as many of our customers are, or will be, affected by mandatory reporting, we decided that we would approach our customers before being asked. The new module is fully functional and all that remains is dialogue with our customers to assess each customer’s requirements; report layouts, report frequencies, and methods of provision, which we anticipate will be automated.
If you would like to find out more, and discuss how Ital Logistics can provide this data, please contact our group chairman, Phil Denton, who is leading this project.