Over 100 delegates gathered to hear leading industry figures discuss decarbonisation issues from across the multimodal logistics sector.
Logistics UK's Director of Policy and Communication Kevin Green opened the event with the Chair's welcome and introduction from Logistics UK.
Speakers included Kuehne + Nagel's Sustainability & Social Impact Director UK, Kate Broome, John Lewis Partnership Partner & General Manager, Justin Laney, Head of Road Freight Decarbonisation and Hydrogen for the Department of Transport Margarita Vigrande-Ashe and Logistics UK's Director of Policy Kevin Green amongst many other key contributors to the day.
Panel sessions and discussions included “Smoothing the legal road to fleet decarbonisation”, “Energy infrastructure - is the country ready?”, “Logistics in the context of net zero transmission” and a panel discussion in which the logistics industry's progress on zero emission vehicle trials was put under the spotlight.
The keynote presentation came from Professor David Cebon, Director of The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight. 'Steps Towards Electrification of Road Freight', examined the merits, or otherwise, of various different paths being considered as the sector looks towards net zero for the heavy good vehicle industry.
Project JOLT is an initiative aimed at accelerating the electrification of the UK’s heavy goods vehicles. Spearheaded by The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (SRF), Project JOLT brings together a consortium of leading industry partners, including John Lewis Partnership, Volvo Trucks UK, and Flexible Power Systems.
“The urgency of the climate crisis is driving adoption of electric heavy goods vehicles at a rate that few in the industry would have expected five years ago," says Cebon.
"Operators are purchasing and running these vehicles today in fleets of all sizes. But there’s still a long way to go to understand how whole fleets and industries can transition to electric heavy goods vehicles in a technically feasible way.”
Michelle Gardner, Logistics UK's Deputy Director Policy said: "Logistics UK's third Delivering Decarbonisation Business Conference was a great success, and it was very encouraging to see so many leading figures from the industry joining together to discuss what is currently one of the hottest topics in logistics.
"Hearing directly from our members on their decarbonisation journeys to date, alongside subject experts, made for a very insightful day. Coming so soon after the Budget, it was good to explore with speakers what further policy certainty they need from government, alongside the confidence to invest and the delivery of supporting infrastructure.
"What was also illustrated so clearly was the sector remains committed to decarbonising, but the only way to achieve that is through partnership, with a plan co-developed between businesses and government to get to net zero and phase out fossil fuels.
"Logistics UK would like to thank everyone who attended the event and we look forward to hearing new ideas and continuing to collaborate together."
