Offsetting is for sure a temporary but above all a necessary solution for more sustainability in logistics. Because when it comes to sustainability, it is undoubtedly time to move things in the right direction again. Therefore, Forto aims to provide 100% climate neutral transportation by 2025. To reach this target and keep our promise, we encourage all of our customers and support them in compensating their emissions. In doing so, the following article covers everything you need to know about offsetting now, to easily make an own contribution.
What does offsetting mean?
Offsetting means to compensate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused (e.g. by cargo ships) through financially supporting climate action projects which evidently reduce, avoid or capture greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (e.g. solar energy projects, reforestation). Offsetting emissions ideally creates a balance between emitted and compensated emissions to neutralize your company’s net carbon footprint. Since transportation is a main contributor to global GHG emissions and a hard-to-abate sector, it is our goal to offset as much CO₂ equivalent as possible until more sustainable alternatives become available at scale (CO₂ equivalent or CO₂e is the standard unit for measuring GHG emissions and carbon footprints).
How to choose a reliable and trustworthy offsetting project?
Studies agree on the characteristics that an offsetting project should meet to be considered as trustworthy:
- The project positively contributes to one or several of the UN’s SDGs.
- The project is certified by leading verification standards that are internationally recognized.
- The retirement of respective emissions offsets is acknowledged and documented by an official registry and provided to the contributor.
- Exact emissions savings are documented and analyzed through independent auditing.
- All projects comply with the principle of additionality meaning that the emissions would not have been saved without the realization of those projects.
Why does Forto offer offsetting to its customers?
Reducing and avoiding emissions at the source is the only way to truly address climate change long-term. However, zero emissions transport solutions are not available at scale yet. We, therefore, choose to offset remaining emissions for immediate climate impact on a large scale. For now, we believe that this is the best way to bridge the gap while we keep in mind that it is only a stepping stone towards the end goal of contributing to the future of sustainable logistics.
In the shipping industry, transparency and visibility over transport emissions are key to enable the customers to understand their impact on the environment. This is why Forto is providing customers with detailed shipments CO₂ emissions reports. Indeed, the use of data is necessary to analyze the emissions of the shippers, detect reduction potentials and implement more sustainable solutions available. Unavoidable emissions can then be compensated for by financially supporting selected climate action projects.
How does offsetting work with Forto?
We are proud to be partnering with Planetly for our offsetting program. Planetly is a technology start-up on a mission to build the tools for the economy to step up to their responsibility and move towards a climate neutral future. Therefore, they build software for companies to analyze, reduce and offset their carbon footprints. Just like us, Planetly believes in transparency and action to fight the climate crisis. This partnership allows us to carefully select our offsetting projects based on the criteria mentioned above and optimizes the positive impact of our customers’ commitment.
Sustainability, a shared responsibility We are facing a global climate emergency today. Amongst others, freight transport and shipping are main contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. This is why we at Forto are in business to create a more responsible society, which means that sustainability is anchored at the core of our company’s purpose. We, therefore, step up to our responsibility by committing to double all of our customers’ CO₂e compensations. We want to do our part while motivating our customers to join in, initiating the joint effort of 1+1. As a transformative LogTech startup, we want to revolutionize the logistics industry – together with our customers.
Setting a New Standard:
Sustainability should be considered as a new standard. For this reason, we have re-defined the default approach, by considering sustainability as the default instead of the exception. Therefore, with Forto the offsetting is integrated by default in all Sea-Freight FCL shipments rates as a separate line item, giving the customers the option to actively opt-out. As of June 2021, 64% of our customers have decided to take action and offset their shipments. We also offset all Sea LCL shipments booked by our customers by default, at no additional cost. This commitment helps us to raise awareness and highlights our commitment to take responsibility in this climate neutral journey.
In addition, our offsetting service is available upon request for any transportation mode. To collectively drive sustainable change within the industry, we regularly share our learnings and best practices. We are proud to have inspired one of our partners TFG Transfracht to include their TFGeco train product in all future quotes by default. Adopting this opt-out approach turns the electrified rail powered by renewable energy into the default option for customers booking their rail transports.
What’s next?
Offsetting is a good way to bridge the gap until less carbon intensive or zero emissions transportation solutions become available at scale – with main industry players currently developing more sustainable shipping options. To ensure that our customers can benefit from new technologies, we at Forto constantly work to increase transparency and collaborate with our partners to make efficient use of new technologies once they become available. Until then, every company should start its emissions reduction journey and can act internally. If you wonder how to start, check out our sustainability guidelines.
If you are curious to learn more about offsetting characteristics and our offer? Visit our Sustainable Logistics Page and contact us at [email protected].
