Think green

With the EU clamping down on carbon and introducing regulations on heavy duty vehicles, the pressure on the industry to act is increasing.

Last week, Amazon pledged to cut emissions, outlining a shipment goal of delivering 50% of its shipments with net zero carbon by 2030.

DHL Deutsche Post Group has set itself a target of zero emissions by 2050. However, closer is its 2025 goal of increasing carbon efficiency by 50% compared to 2007 levels. The company is rolling out electric vehicles, including vans and in some cases, boats. As of the end of 2017, DHL said it had increased carbon efficiency by 32% since 2007.

DPD is hoping to reduce CO2 emissions by 10% per parcel in 2020, compared to 2013. The company hopes to use a combination of transport efficiency, new fulfilment options such as click and collect and alternative fuels to hit the target. For example, in France it is using natural gas and electric vehicles.

FedEx’s goals focus mainly on its air fleet, which it notes is one of the places where it has the greatest environmental impact. The company wants to cut aircraft emissions by 30% in 2020, increase vehicle efficiency by 30% by 2020 and get 30% of jet fuel from alternative fuels by 2030. The company has expanded its use of electric and hybrid trucks, using power-assisted tricycles and claims alternative jet fuels will be ready to use from 2020.

UPS hopes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from global ground operations to 12% by 2025. It also says it will generate 25% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and for 40% of global ground fuel to be alternative fuel. Initiatives include joining a smart grid consortium in the UK that will enable simultaneous recharging of electric vehicles.

As part of our own commitment to reduce our environmental impact, we have deployed 100 electric vans in 17 delivery offices across the UK. We are also using electric vehicle technology for larger commercial vehicles to move mail within our network.

Royal Mail is part of a small group of UK businesses to use a sizeable number of electric vehicles in its main operation. We have already met our business target of reducing our carbon emissions in the UK by 20% by 2010-21. By using telemetry in 2017-18, we saved approximately 500,000 litres of diesel, equating to 1,300 tonnes of CO2.

We will continue to look at new and innovative ways to reduce our carbon footprint.