A proactive, collaborative business-centric approach, rather than a government-lead approach, will be the way in which the global transportation and logistics industry can reduce its carbon footprint, according to European Smart Freight Centre (SFC) executive director Sophie Punte.
“Collaboration between governments, the private sector, and civil society is essential to make freight more efficient, and to realise emission reduction targets,” Punte says.
The road freight industry globally is fragmented and cut-throat, carriers need more help meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) protocols, and we need to take a business-centric approach rather than a government-centric approach to setting emission reduction targets,” she says.
“There also needs to be a consistent setting of goals and methodologies used for the different modes of transport,” according to Punte.
Punte was the keynote speaker at three October forums in New Zealand jointly organised by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and the Sustainable Business Council (SBC).
“Efficiency opportunities in the NZ freight sector” was a mixture of presentations and panel discussions for attendees, including SBC members and suppliers, EECA stakeholders, central and local government officials and industry association members.
Fascinating process
The SFC is a European-based non-profit organisation founded by Punte to promote a more efficient and environmentally sustainable global freight sector, which she says is a fascinating process.
It leads the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) as a platform for industry initiatives, associations, and multinationals to develop and implement a global framework for logistics emissions accounting in line with the greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol.
As the executive director of the Smart Freight Centre, Punte works with industry and other stakeholders to remove market barriers, leverage existing initiatives and thus accelerate the uptake of practical solutions throughout industry.
Previously, Punte headed Clean Air Asia, Asia’s leading non-profit organisation on air quality and climate, working with governments, cities, and industry to advance policies and practical actions.
She played a leading role in bringing green freight on to the agenda of Asian governments, establishing the China Green Freight Initiative as China’s government-backed programme, and in the founding of Green Freight Asia as an industry-led programme for Asia.
Punte also worked at the United Nations in Bangkok to lead a UNEP energy efficiency and climate change project for Asian industry, working with advisory firm KPMG in Australia and The Netherlands on corporate social responsibility and environmental management.
She says coming back to New Zealand was a bit of a homecoming for her, as she previously worked as a policy analyst with the Ministry of the Environment, and as also an environmental scientist with Opus International Consultants here.
Punte holds a Master of Science (Biology) and a Master of Environmental Management from the Netherlands.
She says the transport industry globally needs to experiment with different technologies and applications to find the right solution to reduce GHG through a multi-modal freight shipping strategy.
A collaborative approach
Punte says that three types of collaboration within the industry will deliver smarter freight solutions globally, these are open collaboration, vertical collaboration, and horizontal collaboration.
The open collaboration sees customers, idea makers and peers working on a practical solution together.
The vertical collaboration sees the shippers (freight owners), logistics service providers (LSPs), and carriers working together within the supply chain, and influencing other organisations to act.
One example quoted by Punte was the collaboration between Tupperware and Proctor & Gamble to consolidate products shipped from Belgium to Greece. By filling up the truck completely with lightweight Tupperware product atop the heavier Proctor & Gamble shampoo, there was a significant reduction in truck movements.
Total annual savings were 150,000 truck km, 200 tonnes of C02, and 10% reduction in transport cost.
A horizontal collaboration between the private sector, government, and civil society sharing a common challenge has the greatest potential to shift systems, according to Punte.
An example of horizontal collaboration was the French government supporting the carriage of cargo in Paris by electric tricycles and vans, allowing department stores to deliver consumer purchases to their residences.
The French government supported “La Petit Reine” with supportive policy, allowing access to city centres through pedestrian areas, tourist spaces, road lanes, bicycle lanes and bus lanes.
In Brazil, the government, private sector and universities there supported a night delivery programme using electric trucks in Sao Paulo to deliver goods to retail stores and supermarkets, and 44 companies were participating in the pilot area of 22 square km.
Punte says, “New Zealand needs to work out which type of collaborations will best suit its needs to reduce emissions in the freight sector.”
