We already know that there is an e-commerce boom in the market since the last few years and it has accelerated even more since the pandemic and we know that with e-commerce comes logistics as both the industries are tied to one another. Due to the fact that you need logistics to ship parcels from one place to another, we know that the e-commerce industry is also criticized a lot because of the carbon emissions that are caused by these transportations. Because of that reason, customers who are shipping products also want to go greener in order to reduce their carbon emissions and become “carbon neutral” in the near future because that is one of the trendiest things right now.
However, logistics providers are in trouble and confused due to customers wanting greener logistics but they are not sure how they can do so. As per a survey by the British International Freight Association, there is “a shift in tone in discussions surrounding logistics decarbonisation, with some 28% of participants now citing client pressure as the leading motivator”. The survey reveals that “69% of respondents consider calculating emissions is part of their daily activities and 15.5% integrating it into their business operations. A further 31% highlighted green initiatives within their organisations, entailing between £1,000 and £9,000 annually for CO2 emissions calculation. Some 22% had assigned budgets of below £1,000 for this, while some 14% allocated budgets in excess of £20,000”.
BIFA director general Steve Parker says that “The conclusion is that there has been growing awareness of environmental issues among the BIFA membership and, to some extent, a growing awareness of the need to measure carbon emissions and provide that information to clients,” and he does acknowledge that “It will be particularly challenging for SMEs to determine how they will use this data, and what they can actually do to reduce their carbon emissions. The general consensus is that significant changes will be required. Although what these will be are not clear at the moment,” It is also worth noting that companies such as IKEA and BMW have already “managed to reduce shipping lines’ carbon emissions via ‘insetting’ agreements with biofuel company GoodShipping, designed to offset a portion of vessel CO2 emissions equivalent to the proportion of their cargo a ship carries”.
