- Sustainability is based on three pillars: environmental, social, and economical prosperity
- Climate neutrality means that global GHGs emissions will have to be counterbalanced by carbon reduction or sequestration
- Offset the remaining and unavoidable emissions allow you to reach climate neutrality
Sustainable development is defined by the capacity to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability is usually based on three pillars: environmental, social, and economical prosperity. This article specifically intends to provide information on how to improve as a company in terms of environmental footprint.
Climate change is affecting every single region of our planet. Post-industrial human activity, including agriculture, farming, and fishery, burning of fossil fuels, transportation, and deforestation among others, is pointed out as being responsible for global warming. The logistics industry specifically is responsible for 6% of global Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs), making it one of the most polluting industries in the world. In 2015, 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Since then, the European Commission presented its agenda to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal, countries will have to be supported by their economy and will encourage every single company to reshape their business models and set new strategies.
Every company has an important role to play in this shift to a complete new paradigm, where sustainability and especially climate neutrality becomes a game changer and not only a nice-to-have. At Forto, we believe that it is our social responsibility to take climate action and that we need to serve as a role model for the industry and our customers. To do so, we have committed to offer 100% climate neutral transportations by 2025.
But what is climate neutrality and what does that mean?
Carbon neutrality means to have a balance between carbon emitted and carbon captured from the atmosphere in carbon sinks. Climate neutrality is going one step further as it does not only concern carbon dioxide (CO2), but all GHGs, including also methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) among others. In order to achieve net-zero emissions, so-called climate-neutrality, all worldwide GHGs emissions, also known as “CO2e” emissions, have to be reduced to a minimum, and all remaining emissions are offset with climate protection measures. In brief, climate neutrality means that global GHGs emissions will have to be counterbalanced by carbon sequestration.
GHGs emissions can hardly be reduced to zero, but both individuals and companies can efficiently avoid emissions by implementing new processes, policies, or simple actions in their everyday operations.
What can corporations do to reduce emissions and reach climate neutrality?
Emissions related to a company’s internal activity on a daily basis are responsible for a large amount of a company’s global GHGs emissions. Energy use in buildings is responsible for 17,5% of global emissions, passenger road transport and aviation are responsible for approximately 13%, while agriculture, land use (including livestock), and forestry, from which are produced the goods that we consume, account for 18% of global emissions. Today, many affordable and simple solutions exist to reduce these emissions.
What to do with the unavoidable emissions?
Currently, unavoidable emissions can be offset for immediate climate impact. Offsetting is especially relevant if there are no feasible, accessible, or affordable alternatives that produce fewer carbon emissions than the current ones. Offsetting means to compensate the emissions caused (e.g. by cargo ships) by financially supporting climate action projects which evidently reduce, avoid or capture greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (e.g. solar energy projects). Offsetting thereby puts a price tag on emissions and creates awareness for the otherwise overlooked environmental costs of transportation. It is not the end solution but an important stepping stone towards the goal of zero emissions.
In the logistics industry, as zero-emissions transport solutions are not available at scale yet and will likely take another 5-10 years to become fully commercially viable, offsetting is a meaningful solution to fill that gap and start acting meanwhile.
When we launched our sustainability offer in April 2021, the majority of our customers had decided to offset the emissions of their shipments with Forto, a great start in the climate action journey.
However, we are not solely concerned with making logistics more sustainable. We believe this important topic should be addressed within every single segment of a company. Therefore we have prepared a guide that aims to provide key steps you can take to reach climate neutrality for your business.
How about you? Contact [email protected] if you are interested in going the extra mile on your climate action journey.
