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Calculating carbon footprints of logistics operations

European shippers and forwarders help advance standard framework for measuring the impact of logistics on emissions.

   European shippers and forwarders say they are accelerating ways for companies to calculate their emissions footprints and find ways to reduce them because of “increasing urgency to step up decarbonization efforts in the logistics sector.”
   The European Shippers Council and European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services issued a statement citing their participation in a project on logistics emissions accounting, which kicked off in October 2016 and finished last month.
   That project, called the Logistics Emissions Accounting & Reduction Network, had the objective of mobilizing companies to “measure and report on the carbon footprint of their global logistics supply chains in a transparent way, with a view to influence meaningful emissions reduction actions.”
   To do that they are trying to get industry to adopt something called the Global Logistics Emissions Council  framework, which provides companies with a method to calculate emissions from logistics across global supply chains.
   Thirty companies — both customers and providers of freight and logistics services — tested the framework across different transport modes.
   The groups said they would like to have the GLEC framework upgraded into an ISO standard.

Chris Dupin

Chris Dupin has written about trade and transportation and other business subjects for a variety of publications before joining American Shipper and Freightwaves.