After a nine-month gestation, the Sustainable Business Council of New Zealand this month launched its Sustainable Procurement Guidelines for freight at a joint EECA/SBC efficiency opportunities in the NZ freight sector forum held in Auckland on October 5 at the Beca Auditorium.
The newly released SBC guidelines seek to shift industry away from the behavioural trait of a lowest transportation cost model to one of a valued partnership, where businesses work together with their freight operators to reduce carbon intensity.
“The Sustainable Procurement Guidelines for freight were designed by the freight owners (shippers) to make the process easy for freight operators,” says SBC executive director Abbie Reynolds.
“One single set of guidelines is a lot more efficient than every one of our members deciding individually to come up with a way of seeking to procure sustainable transport solutions,” Reynolds says.
“The second thing about the guideline was the view of how we can move from the freight lowest cost model to one of a valued partnership, where the shippers and carriers work together to find solutions to reducing the carbon footprint,” she says.
At the combined EECA/SBC efficiency opportunities event, Reynolds told the audience that 83 member companies of the SBC account for one-third of New Zealand’s private sector GDP.
“I’m proud to say that regarding the new guidelines for sustainable freight procurement, we are — to quote the industry phrase — delivering them in full and on time,” Reynolds says.
The SBC freight efficiency group includes logistics, transport, local and national government departments, and other enterprise organisations.
These include Auckland Airport, Coda, KiwiRail, NZ Post Group, Ports of Auckland, Toll Holdings, Countdown, DB Breweries, Lion Breweries, NZ Steel, OfficeMax, The Warehouse Group, EECA Business, Apparelmaster, Toyota New Zealand, and Z Energy.
Reynolds told the audience that SBC is partnering with EECA to drive change in freight efficiency, because “there is no more business as usual.”
“My view, which is shared by the members, is that climate action is a priority, and there is plenty of opportunity for the transport and freight sector to reduce carbon intensity,” she says .
“New Zealand is ratifying the Paris agreement, according to the environment minister Paula Bennett, so this change is an opportunity for us to be in front of the curve.”
Reynolds says, “I believe that technology will be the key to providing a massive disruption in how we address carbon intensity in the freight sector.”
Transport accounts for 17% and energy for 22% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), a combined C02 emission figure of 43%.
The business sector — including all transport of freight — accounts for almost one third of total transport emissions in New Zealand.
Road freight recorded the highest emissions profile in 2014, at 106 (g-Co2-eq/t-km freight), followed by coastal shipping at 69, and rail at 36.
Annual freight movement in 2014 was 23,301 million -km for road freight, 4492 million t-km for rail and 3930 t-km for coastal shipping.
New Zealand is making a global commitment to reduce GHG to an actual target of 5% below its 1990 levels by 2020, a provisional target of 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, and a long-term target of 50% below 1990 levels by 2050.
The Ministry of Environment says NZ will meet these responsibility targets through a mix of domestic emission reductions, removal of carbon dioxide by forests, and participation in international carbon markets.
Sustainable principles
Designing the Freight Efficiency Guidelines with a threefold function is enabling an efficient integration of sustainable procurement practices for businesses at the very initial planning stage, providing themes for discussion with existing and potential freight carriers, and recommending regular line items for businesses for inclusion in a tender or request for proposal.
The SBC says sustainable procurement practices integrate requirements, specifications, and criteria that are compatible with, and protect the environment, social progress and support economic development, by seeking resource efficiency, improving the quality of products and services and ultimately optimising costs.
“Shared value derived from both the freight owners and the freight operators [includes] experiencing mutually beneficial outcomes linked to improved health and safety, driver well being, better economic and environmental performance, reduced emissions, and a more resilient sector that is better positioned to deliver improved productivity in the short, medium and long term,” the SBC says.
The Freight Efficiency Guidelines cover procurement planning, customer considerations, sustainable procurement outcomes, sustainability credentials, discussions with current and potential providers, and formalised line items in the RFP/tender process.
