How to Select Carriers to Meet Your Sustainability Goals

Data Can be Found Across Your Entire Inbound and Outbound Transportation Network

Finding data to understand your emissions intensity and absolute lifecycle emissions can seem like a daunting task – but it doesn’t need to be. By collecting data from internal and external partners, you can begin to calculate your emissions output and build a meaningful emissions baseline. You may receive hesitation or push-back from carriers or internal team members when requesting information, but approaching the situation by explaining the value of the data and the value of a strategic, data-driven relationship will allow the partner to understand your intent.

Establish Ongoing Processes

Emissions tracking isn’t a project, it’s a process. While collecting information for your baseline, write a standard operating procedure (SOP) for ongoing emissions tracking and analysis of data. Not allowing time for robust data collection to inform your baseline can lead to difficulties in reducing your carbon footprint. As your company grows, each acquisition, team member, and volume of business will add or subtract from your emissions intensity. Being specific in the categorization and calculation is imperative to the overall emissions you will need to either reduce or  pay for through carbon offsets. By effectively organizing the data early on, you will be able to flag operational areas that generate a sizable number of emissions and can be switched to a lower emissions solution.  

You Can’t Improve What You Can’t Measure

Once your company agrees on a science-based target, it is important to work the target backward to set achievable goals. Communicating manageable key performance indicators (KPIs) will gain the support of team members who believe in the target and are willing to evolve traditional methods to sustainable practices. Often, companies become more efficient because of analyzing processes that haven’t been changed in years and by reducing fuel spend because of an increased MPG.  

Companies have several tasks to complete before setting a science-based target. Collecting data from internal and external sources, establishing a process, and setting manageable KPIs are all a part of building an emissions baseline. You can drive real progress toward your corporate sustainability goals by   understanding where and how to reduce scope 3 transportation emissions.

Emissions Reduction Dictionary Science-Based Targets: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets are considered “science-based” if they are in line with what the latest climate science says is necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement—to limit global warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.​ Scope 1 Emissions: GHG emissions directly from operations that are owned or controlled by the reporting company. This can include emissions from owned facilities/factories and owned transportation. Scope 2 Emissions: Indirect GHG emissions from the generation of purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heating, or cooling consumed by the reporting company. Scope 3 Emissions: All indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions. Absolute Emissions: The total amount of emissions an entity (company, nation, etc.) releases into the atmosphere in a given timeframe. Also known as overall emissions. Emissions Intensity: Measures the volume of lifecycle emissions produced against a measure of business output.   Sources: EPA SmartWay & Science-Based Targets

Pressure to reduce carbon in supply chains continues to grow...

• 42%: Consumers that have changed consumption habits based on their environmental stance. Source: Deloitte
• $43 Trillion: Asset value at risk as a result of climate change. Source: TCFD
• $369 Billion: Allocated to fund energy and climate projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. Source: The White House

Encourage carrier participation in SmartWay

SmartWay is becoming more popular in the supply chain and will become a key differentiator in the future for both shippers and carriers alike. Both shippers and carriers can participate to learn their SmartWay score to benchmark their carbon footprint across the supply chain. Carriers complete a concise survey each year, with the first year requiring the most information. Carriers can then use this data to understand and improve their performance. The SmartWay site offers resources for incentives, grant programs, and a calculator to understand the cost of investing in electric trucks.  

Encouraging carrier participation may be a challenge, but it is valuable information to help meet your sustainability goals. SmartWay shares an excel file with carriers that are registered along with their rating for an efficient lookup method. This is an efficient way to understand the carbon footprint of each carrier in your transportation network. Communication with carriers will help them understand your intent. To aid this discussion, we compiled some benefits:    

• Participation in SmartWay provides you with a score that is reflective of your fuel consumption and emissions across the transportation sector, instead of automatically assigning you to the sixth performance range.  
• SmartWay is progressively becoming more widely used across the industry. Participation will inform overall emissions and offer the opportunity for improvement, if needed, before it becomes more widely used.  
• SmartWay promotes benchmarking. By participating in SmartWay, you can understand how you compare against your competition and how shippers will decide whether to contract with you for their freight.  

SmartWay is one of the first steps for carriers to quickly receive a scorecard on their emissions output. In receiving a score via answering a brief survey each year, the program will allow carriers to efficiently track their emissions output and show year-over-year progress. Shippers and carriers can benefit from the voluntary program to benchmark against competition. For shippers, the score allows you to select carriers that operate more efficiently to lower your overall emissions. To encourage participation, it is important to celebrate achievements such as completing the survey, incentives for receiving a certain score or recognizing the progress made over the prior year.

Energy Choice

Alternative fuels continue to displace diesel fuel usage in specific geographies. Biodiesel, renewable diesel, fossil natural gas, renewable natural gas (RNG), hydrogen, and electricity are some of the prominent alternative transportation energies that are receiving investment for research and development. Nationally, alternative energy accounts for roughly 8 percent of the heavy-duty market, with California being a leader at 36 percent.
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Switching to fleets with alternative energy can offer substantial fuel savings and emissions reduction, especially when looking at targeted markets where energy cost savings and incentive programs can aide your strategy. For example, a lane from Ontario, CA to Tracy, CA on June 20, 2022, had a fuel savings of 40% fuel savings and 300% emissions reduction when the production source of alternative energy was identified and measured. Understanding how your energy is sourced and how it can complement your initiatives will help you make progress toward your science-based target.  

Mode Choice

Evaluating your transportation network for opportunities to switch to intermodal can offer a substantial reduction in emissions and can add value to your transportation network. Switching to intermodal has been shown in Breakthrough data to reduce emissions on a load by up to 50 percent. For example, converting 25 percent of 789 loads to intermodal across 7 eligible lanes would provide:  

• $35K Estimated fuel cost reduction
• 19K Estimated gallon reduction
• 200MTCO2e Estimated emissions reduction

When considering intermodal, it is crucial to understand if the prospective route is still optimal for your transportation network and feasible to convert. To add, selecting a carrier that offers rail and truckload capability in the same container, also known as an intermodal marketing company (IMC), is one of the most effective ways to transport goods.  

Average MPG

Selecting carriers with a higher mile per gallon average will reduce fuel consumption and reduce cost. Carriers that participated in the North American Council for Freight Efficiency’s (NACFE) Run on Less Regional program showed that class 8 tractors—both diesel and CNG—can use a combination of technologies and driver behavior to achieve optimal fuel economy received an average of 8.3 MPG for fleets with CNG and Diesel trucks, and 8.7 MPG average for fleets with diesel-only trucks.

Carriers that participate in SmartWay will also offer a score that will identify their operational efficiency. It is important to consider weight of load when setting a MPG target for carriers to achieve. Setting a MPG target for carriers to achieve naturally reduces their fuel consumption, emissions, and cost. Breakthrough shippers are on pace for an annual reduction of 15.5 million gallons and 153k metric tons of emissions because of setting these attainable targets. 

Transportation Policy

With the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 signed into law on August 16, the bill provides $369 billion to fund energy and climate projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. The bill also extends tax credits for alternative fuels and fueling stations, and provides $1 billion in new grants for clean heavy-duty vehicles. This level of investment is necessary to build the infrastructure to support lower emission tractors.