9 Below Zero

9. What are the biggest common sustainability challenges facing the whole logistics sector in your opinion? And what are the hottest topics in decarbonisation of the logistics sector?

“Logistics is responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions globally, which is a sizeable burden to bear when it comes to sustainability. This is why there has been a push in recent years for logistics providers to find innovative ways to improve their sustainability credentials, including trialling EVs and alternative fuels in their fleets.

“Central to this approach for us at Europa is our partnership with Pledge, a sustainability platform that enables transparent, standards-compliant Scope 3 emissions reporting and gives the option to offset emissions. For businesses with strong consumer markets, this has been a great benefit and has helped them be compliant with the additional EU Sustainability Reporting Standards that recently came into effect.

“As with anything, there are significant sustainability challenges for logistics. We’ve found the biggest ones to be infrastructure and cost. In our European road freight division, Europa Road, we have implemented several initiatives recently to drive our sustainable practice including trialling an EV in our domestic fleet.

"While it was great to explore the scope of these innovations, we found that the technology and infrastructure simply wasn’t there to make this a viable decarbonisation option for transporting heavy consignments over long distances.

“We also replaced diesel fuel with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO-100) – another hot topic of discussion for decarbonisation – on certain routes between the UK and Netherlands this year. However, HVO doesn’t present a perfect solution given it is 30 to 40 per cent more expensive than diesel. For many of our customers tackling cost increases in a challenging economic landscape, it isn’t viable for them to shoulder additional costs at this stage.”

8. Do you think the UK’s net zero goals are realistic?

“Aiming for net zero emissions by 2050 is certainly ambitious and who’s to say what we can achieve in the next 25 years? However, if the UK is to achieve its initial goal of 68 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, there does need to be an industry-wide effort and government funding to improve the accessibility of viable and affordable technologies. Adding these additional costs into businesses that are already facing significant cost pressures is not the answer.

“This will involve updating our current road and rail infrastructure, as well as continued research on biofuels, biodiesels and renewable energy alternatives for warehouses, ports and aircrafts.”

7. What are the specific challenges faced by the air, sea and warehouse sectors?

“Specific challenges for air freight include greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution and air quality. While air freight offers unparalleled speed and efficiency for the movement of trade, it also contributes significantly more carbon emissions than shipping by sea or road.

“For some years now, the logistics sector has been experimenting with key strategies including the adoption of sustainable fuels and carbon offsetting. These are promising strategies which are expected to become more accessible to freight providers in the future. However, more collaboration between airlines, exporters and logistics companies is needed to accelerate net zero efforts.

“Approximately 11 per cent of logistics greenhouse gas emissions come from warehousing, which has resulted in a growing pressure to move towards greener practices. Challenges for warehousing include issues around energy consumption, waste management and sustainable transportation.”

6. What is Europa doing to try and influence things?

“We are making progress in developing ways to navigate sustainability challenges across all our divisions: Europa Warehouse, Europa Road and Europa Air & Sea. For example, we segregate and recycle our waste cleanly to prevent it ending up in landfill, we purchase energy proactively from renewable sources, and we harvest rainwater in addition to deploying a variety of water-saving technologies.

“We were pleased to achieve ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 certification for environmental and energy management systems recently, and we continue to work alongside environmental experts to ensure the actions we take are long-lasting and impactful.

“A big step forward we’ve made in Europa Warehouse is installing automation in our 750k sq. Ft Corby facility. Through automated planning, auto ID labelling and fine-tuned reverse logistics, it optimises our warehouse’s space, keeps light and heat consumption to a minimum, and reinvents waste.”

5. Can you explain some examples of positive breakthroughs from Europa and beyond?

“Logistics service providers are making sustainable strides by measuring and tracking their carbon footprints and focusing on the things they can control – sourcing green energy, segregating waste, exploring the role of EVs and providing technology which can report on a customer’s Scope 3 emissions. For us at Europa Road, a UK leader in groupage transport, we are taking all reasonable steps to reduce our impact on the environment.

“Because groupage involves consolidating multiple shipments in one truck load, often double decks and long semi-trailers, it promotes more sustainable practice by minimising empty miles, maximising load fill and using the most direct routes to the final destination. This has cost benefits as well as being sustainable through our optimised groupage network."

4. What inspires Europa’s thinking when addressing decarbonisation?

“There’s no question that the world needs our care, now more than ever. As a responsible company, we are motivated to develop our environmental agenda because it has a direct impact on our customers, our people and our environment.

“We are demonstrating our commitment to environmental sustainability through our innovative partnerships and investments in sophisticated carbon reduction techniques. Our partnership with Pledge, a sustainability platform that enables transparent, standards-compliant Scope 3 emissions reporting and take offsetting action, is central to this.

"We can now provide clients impacted by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRDs) with reliable, precise emissions data, empowering them to meet transparency requirements with confidence and ease.”

3. With the growing emphasis on sustainability, do you see rail freight competing with road and air transport?

“Rail freight is certainly an important part of the logistics market, with many sustainability benefits. However, we believe that road, air and sea freight are still the most viable methods of moving goods from a flexibility, efficiency and accuracy point of view.

“Europa is committed to exploring ways in which we can improve the sustainability credentials of our road, air, sea and warehouse services, finding solutions that are efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly.”

2. How does Europa deal with ‘first mover hesitancy’?’

“One of Europa’s values is ‘we take bold steps’, which encourages us to think proactively, take risks and develop solutions which exceed our customers’ expectations. We have never shied away from being one of the first to enter the market with a product or service and will continue to take bold steps if it’s beneficial to our customers.

“For example, as a means of improving our sustainability, Europa Road was an early adopter of Pledge, the accredited emissions measuring, reporting and offsetting platform for logistics I mentioned earlier. We invested time and resources into trialling EVs in our domestic fleet, and we were one of the first large logistics providers to integrate Microlise, a fleet management telematics platform, which drives efficiencies across our fleet.”

1. What developments are you expecting to see in logistics in 2025?

"In 2025, there will be an ongoing focus on optimising operations to ensure they run as efficiently and sustainably as possible, while balancing cost pressures. Across all aspects our business, we are looking to leverage the benefits of automation, digital solutions and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help us achieve this.

"Furthermore, we hope there will be an increased focus on improving the sustainability of logistics through research and investment in alternative fuels, energy and infrastructure to help the UK achieve its ambitious sustainability goals.

"Finally, across Europa Worldwide Group, we will continue to develop our inhouse initiatives that help engage and motivate our teams. Through business growth, learning and development opportunities and industry partnerships such as Generation Logistics, we hope to be able to continue to attract and retain the best logistics talent."

Kirsty Dean:

Kirsty is an experienced consultant, coach and strategic client lead – passionate about the power of culture and engagement in driving performance and change. Over the past 20 years, she’s worked at an executive level with many exciting and forward-thinking global brands to help them engage their people with business change, vision, values, purpose and culture.

Joining Europa Worldwide Group in 2022, Kirsty is Marketing & Communications Director, overseeing the entire brand for the company and its specialist divisions.

Published On: 02/01/2025 10:49:49