Goods transport accounts for a large part of the world's global greenhouse gas emissions. As a customer, you take important choices that affect our climate. Choosing the right mode of transport will help to minimize carbon dioxide emissions, among other things. But it is not always easy to see how much the the difference between the various modes of transport creates. As a help we want to show some concrete examples.
When you choose to bring home an item from Asia by boat, you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 96% compared to if you had chosen air freight. For a transport of 200 kg from, for example, Hong Kong to Stockholm, this means a saving of about 2.7 tonnes of CO2e.
In our example, we send goods that weigh a total of 200 kg and a volume of 2 cubic meters from Hong Kong to Stockholm. The first route goes from Hong Kong to Munich where the goods are reloaded. The last leg runs from Munich to Stockholm, still by plane.
The total greenhouse gas emissions for this transport are 2826 kg CO2e.
In this example, the same weight and volume, 200 kg and 2 cubic meters, are taken by boat from Hong Kong to Gothenburg, via Rotterdam. From Gothenburg to Stockholm, the goods are transported by truck.
The total greenhouse gas emissions for this transport are 114 kg CO2e.
By choosing smart modes of transport and planning logistics, we can together help reduce your company's climate footprint.
When you choose to fly goods home from Asia to Sweden, this climate burdens considerably more than if you choose to bring home the same goods by boat and truck. Several large transport companies have developed their own calculation tools that help you produce figures on how much climate impact your transport entails. You can find a very clear example at DHL Carbon Calculator.
We should not underestimate the fact that boat transports take much longer, especially from Asia to Europe. To handle this, you naturally need to plan your logistics differently.
If you fly 200 kg and 2 m2 twice a year, the total emissions will be 5662.34 kg CO2e (WtW). Should you instead plan your deliveries so that you can take home the same volume on four occasions by boat, the total emissions for your delivery would be 229.08 kg CO2e (WtW).
Our logistics experts can help you and your company plan deliveries so that together we find a good logistics solution that both has as low a climate footprint as possible while helping your business’s competitiveness.
This is a graphical comparison between climate footprints depending on mode of transport and manufacturing continent.
