Sustainability is at the top of the agenda for many companies. However, actions should produce measurable gains. This is what we did. In cooperation with the University of Twente, we turned our words into actions and achieved great insights on kilograms of CO2 reduction.
Along with some talented groups of students from the Univeristy of Twente, we created insights into our carbon footprint using BigMile. This tool calculates, analyses, and shows the improvement points for carbon footprints.
Why do we think it’s essential to have insight into CO2 emissions?
Concerns about sustainability are nowadays appearing more frequently on government agendas. An example is the Paris climate agreement, which aims for Europe to be 100% free of CO2 emissions by 2050. In order to take actions to be more sustainable, you first need a data baseline to see where you could improve. The BigMile tool was a great solution to evaluate our sustainability performance.
“Transport represents almost a quarter of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and is the main cause of air pollution in cities. The transport sector has not seen the same gradual decline in emissions as other sectors: emissions only started to decrease in 2007 and still remain higher than in 1990 (see graph below). Within this sector, road transport is by far the biggest emitter accounting for more than 70% of all GHG emissions from transport in 2014.”
European Comission / source: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport_en
Data: capturing what matters the most
Reflecting on our situation, BigMile was the ideal solution. It creates insights into CO2 emissions per pallet per kilometre, among other variables. It also helps us comparing different types of transport; a standard trailer compared to a 2WIN double-deck trailer, road transport compared to sea transport and diesel fuel vs LNG.
- Structuring selected data
Our project started with the challenge to structure and analyse the huge amount of available data. Data we needed to collect to get the desired results from BigMile were, for example: - Shipment details
Within the shipment details, data is structured based on the freight’s origin, the destination of the trip and amount/volume of freight and units moved. - Trip data
Trip data gives more insight into the type of trailer, the trip number and registration mark. - Fuel
Within the fuel, data is the type of fuel, for example, Diesel or LNG, litres, consumption litre per kilometre and CO2 per unit as necessary. The final structured data was used as the foundation for the rest of the project.
The next steps
The first deliverable was a dashboard and prototype app, which provided insight into the CO2 emissions produced by using Emons Cargo 2WIN double-deck trailers. The app went live and it was possible to learn about CO2 emissions per pallet in combination with kilometres on the road. With this new tool, it is possible to benchmark accurately – compared to different organisations, standard trailers and types of fuel. This is how we calculated that our 2WIN trailer is around 40% moresustainable!
What’s next?
At the end of the project, we launched prototypes of the dashboards and app. Now it is our turn to move on with the project and embed it within the Emons Service Centre, Control Tower. Using BigMile, creating dashboards and apps further contributes to our route of digitalisation, innovation and becoming more sustainable within the European freight branch. Would you like to know more about our sustainable solutions or how much CO2 your company can save? Download our sustainability whitepaper!
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