How Can Data Boost Decarbonisation In Freight And Logistics?

The world is built on data, which powers the majority of decisions. When trusted data is well managed it can boost visibility, optimise resource use, identify vulnerabilities and drive innovation. 

So, what is the reality of data for sustainability in the freight and logistics industries and how does it impact Scope 3 emissions?

Mitie: Driving supply chain sustainability

Catherine Wheatley, Director of Data and Technology, Plan Zero, at Mitie, is responsible for helping some of the UK’s biggest businesses reach their sustainability targets by using data to help them reduce their energy use and identify the right paths to net zero. 

Founded in 1987, Mitie is the UK’s leading facilities management and professional services company. The company’s 64,000 employees look after 2.5 million assets for its large, diverse, blue-chip customer base, from banks and retailers, to hospitals, schools and critical government strategic assets.

“Data plays an invaluable role in driving down emissions – and having it all in one place is crucial to identify patterns and find opportunities to improve sustainability in logistics and the supply chain,” she says.

Mitie’s sustainability strategy centres around its ‘Plan Zero’ pledge to reach net zero emissions for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025 and for Scope 3 emissions by 2035. The company is focussing on three different areas to achieve this: 

• Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from power and transport
• Eradicating waste
• Enhancing the efficiency of buildings to meet the highest environmental standards. 

“Crucially, to create maximum impact, these goals don’t just extend to Mitie’s direct operations, they are embedded into every aspect of how we deliver services for our customers,” Catherine explains. “We also ensure sustainability is a key consideration when working with suppliers.”

DP World: Decarbonisation and human sustainability in freight

Sarah Mourino joined DP World in 2023 as Senior Director of Sustainability for the Americas region, coming into the role with 20 years of experience working in sustainability, specifically the decarbonisation of the freight and maritime industry.

“In the early 2000s when I started working in freight, nobody really knew anything about emissions at ports,” Sarah says.

“We didn't understand the way that vessels, trucks and terminals operate.” 

And the rest, as they say, is history for Sarah – she has worked with consultants and internal teams to start collecting and understanding emissions data in freight ever since.

“I have always approached my work in this space as less of a sustainability practitioner working in freight, but more of a freight person working through the lens of sustainability,” she says.

“I’m incredibly familiar with the operational aspects of how the freight industry works, so that I can see what's important in the freight industry and how I can use that to implement change, further sustainability principles, implement efficiency, get data to show where we're going and what we need to do.”

Her work centres around innovation – ensuring that trading systems are the most efficient they can be and are using fewer resources, to boost sustainability. 

“One of the things that attracted me to DP World is that they have a very ambitious, very comprehensive sustainability strategy called Our World, Our Future,” Sarah says.

“Sustainability strategies in this industry tend to be laser focused on decarbonisation, which to me is just one part of a broader puzzle that needs to be put together for systemic change in the industry – and the Our World, Our Future strategy puts that into action.”

The strategy revolves around seven responsible business priorities – Safety, Security, Wellbeing, Ethics, Community Engagement, Climate Change and People Development – that work to serve three legacy pillars: Water, Women and Education.

“We are always looking at every aspect of our business to see what it is possible to change so that we both support our business and we support communities, the environment and economic systems,” Sarah explains. This includes education programmes that support skill development. 

“This industry does not have a lot of women working in it, particularly when you get to the terminal operations. So, we layer lots of different goals into our programmes where we're supporting education, women's development and living wage jobs, and through those channels we build our workforce in that particular region. It’s a really wonderful way to combine sustainability goals to benefit everybody.”

The data-first approach to decarbonisation

“One of the most foundational elements of decarbonisation is data,” Sarah says. 

“You can't manage what you can't measure, right? So the first thing that I do in a company, programme or project is to familiarise myself with the emissions data, often called emission inventories.”

“As is the case for all aspects of sustainability, the first step to reducing environmental impact is to measure it, or as I like to say, you can’t manage what you can’t measure,” Catherine echos. “Understanding the ‘what, where and when’ of your carbon footprint is vital to create a targeted emissions reduction strategy, and provide a benchmark to measure results against.”

In the freight and transport industry however, emissions data can be complex. Many of the emissions come from mobile sources that move around the world, as well as third party suppliers. 

Naturally, as companies start to focus on Scope 3 emissions, the pressure on logistics and freight companies – whose emissions make up a large part of Scope 3 emissions for other companies – to report on emissions increases.

“I spend a lot of time making sure that we have the data that we need to make decisions and that we have identified the areas where we need to improve our data,” Sarah explains.

“Data can always be better, but you can get started on programmes with incomplete data, identify your gaps and continue from there.”

Mitie’s waste data reporting tool helps its clients to work with accurate, well-managed data.

“With this system, our customers can access detailed carbon data across its whole estate to get further insight into where waste could be eliminated and the impact this would have on its carbon footprint,” Catherine says.

“Using this tool, we have been able to identify new opportunities to reduce the port’s carbon emissions. This includes introducing on-site container storage so that waste can be compacted, meaning more can be carried by a vehicle, resulting in fewer trips, which, in turn, reduces the carbon emissions associated with the waste’s removal.”

Structure, methodology and training are essential for efficient data management – and this is where organisations like the Smart Freight Centre (SFC) come in.

What is the SFC?

The Smart Freight Centre exists to enact its vision – a zero-emission global logistics sector by 2050 or earlier, consistent with 1.5C pathways​. It enables performance measuring of GHG logistics emissions, facilitates solution pathways, catalyses collaboration and trains organisations to accelerate the uptake of decarbonisation solutions.

Founded in 2013, the non-profit organisation has united over 150 multinationals in adopting the GLEC Framework and provided the principles of the new ISO standard for quantification of logistics emissions.

Based in Amsterdam, SFC was established to create an end-to-end harmonised methodology for calculating freight emissions, in lieu of a standard for the industry. 

Skip to today and SFC’s ISO certified methodology supports freight organisations like DP World on their journey to net zero, whilst the Smart Freight Academy provides education on decarbonising freight. While this supports sustainability within freight and logistics, the knock-on for Scope 3 emissions for some of the world’s largest companies has the potential to be incredibly significant.

“Sharing data, knowledge of data management for decarbonising freight and standardising data collection and reporting is so impactful – and is now widespread thanks to SFC,” Sarah says.

As logistics specialists, route planning presents an opportunity to boost decarbonisation for both Mitie and DP World.

“The team at our Technical Operations Services Centre (TSOC) in Manchester uses data analytics to enhance route planning so that it is as carbon efficient as possible,” says Catherine. “Using an Uber-like, AI-based software, when a maintenance task is added to the system, it is assigned to the closest colleague, re-routing their journey to be as direct as possible. This is automatically updated in real-time to avoid traffic or bad weather to keep journey time and fuel consumption as low as possible.”

Transparency throughout the supply chain

Scope 3 emissions are something of a minefield – the global supply chain is a very complex web and all of it has emissions data to manage. Companies rely on partners, clients and suppliers to efficiently report on their emissions.

“The operational data needed to produce Scope 3 emissions information can often be difficult because companies hold that close,” says Sarah.

“There is no global system for looking at freight data, so it's often a case of relying on manual data from partners and we have to really strongly rely on collaboration for that.”

It is widely accepted that collaboration and partnerships are essential to success in sustainability, and a closer inspection of managing Scope 3 emissions highlights that. 

“Being transparent about total emissions through the supply chain is really important, which is why transportation and distribution of goods throughout the supply chain are included in our reporting, both in terms of upstream logistics (including transporting materials between sites) and downstream logistics (such as waste management or emissions from products used),” Catherine says.

“It’s important to be transparent because supply chains are all interconnected – while our supply chain is a part of our broader environmental impact, equally our operations will be a part of another organisation’s overall sustainability. This demonstrates why the supply chain is an area where collaboration can have a big impact.

“By sharing our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions with our customers and helping to reduce the environmental impact of our own logistics, we’re feeding into a wider effort to achieve the UK’s net zero goals.”

“All of our partners need us to reduce our emissions because we're their Scope 3 and we need them to reduce their emissions because they're our Scope 3,” explains Sarah.

The bottom line is clear – the importance of emissions data to lower global emissions simply can’t be overstated.

To read the full story in the magazine click HERE

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