Global freight forwarder AIT Worldwide Logistics announced on Friday a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2035.
The Earth Day announcement came in a sustainability report, the Itasca, Illinois-based company’s first corporate social responsibility document.
“The company had numerous environmental, social and governance programs already in place — some for more than a decade,” Ray Fennelly, chief information officer and executive sponsor of the company’s sustainability initiative, said in a release.
“For us, the challenge was to integrate these programs under a single unified corporate social responsibility framework that is clearly communicated to stakeholders,” he added.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SmartWay program member since 2007, AIT plans to reach its net-zero emissions target through emission-reduction strategies and purchases of carbon offsets.
AIT’s sustainability report includes a tally of its scope 1 (direct), scope 2 (indirect) and scope 3 (supply chain) emissions calculations for 2021.
- Scope 1: 11,945 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
- Scope 2: 4,673 CO2e.
- Scope 3: 10,966 CO2e.
Calculated in partnership with ClimatePartner, AIT’s total emissions for 2021 — 27,584 CO2e — are equivalent to the emissions from using more than 2.7 million gallons of diesel, according to the EPA.
Many logistics companies and retailers only include their direct and sometimes indirect emissions in calculations and emission-reduction targets. Including emissions from along a company’s supply chain is relatively rare because scope 3 can be hard to measure.
Partnership provides customers with carbon offsetting option
In collaboration with ClimatePartner, AIT tracks and measures carbon dioxide emissions down to a shipment level using its TMS. AIT’s customers can also purchase carbon credits to offset emissions from shipments.
The report didn’t mention what organizations customers can buy offsets through but said they would support “accredited carbon offset projects.”
WATCH: Insights into voluntary carbon credit
The company has an internal team overseeing emissions, waste and energy management. It also has a “company wide commitment to recycling and paper reduction.”
“The programs in our sustainability report emerged organically from the company’s core values: Earn our customers’ trust, value our teammates, engage in our communities and apply our ethics,” Vaughn Moore, executive chairman and chief executive officer, said in the release.
“In recent years, our organization came to recognize sustainability as a common thread for these initiatives,” Moore continued. “And in 2021, we determined that a formal expression of AIT’s commitment to corporate social responsibility was the next logical step forward.”
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