News

European Initiative for a new CO2-monitoring programme gathers momentum

Monday, 12 December 2011

Representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission recently welcomed the industry-driven approach to establish a pan-European standard system for collating, analysing and monitoring CO2 emissions from road freight operations. Representatives from HEINEKEN, The Dow Chemical Company and DHL informed key European officials about the progress made towards a uniquely European version of the comparable SmartWay Partnership programme in the US. Since last year the group has grown from seven founder members to some 25 companies committed to seeing this initiative succeed.

 The initiative aims to generate strong market incentives to engage companies across the supply chains into the green procurement of transportation services in order to drive long-term improvements. It is envisaged to create a central database to calculate, validate and benchmark the environmental performance of transportation companies based on their actual data. The database will be hosted by a neutral, independent body. This way, logistics managers will be able to measure and reduce the carbon footprint of their products through green procurement of transportation services. Transportation companies will benefit from attracting climate-conscious customers, understanding their environmental score and getting access to best-practices on eco-efficiency.

The Brussels-based European Shippers' Council (ESC) in partnership with its Dutch member, the EVO, will help to manage and facilitate the development of the programme. The UK-based Energy Saving Trust (EST) is appointed to develop a tool that would deliver the benchmarking reports and analysis of truck CO2 emissions for the rapidly expanding membership of the group. With several years of experience in this field, EST will work on this technical solution over the coming months.

Following a first year of comparing, testing and evaluating different concepts, the European initiative will officially launch in the first quarter of 2012 on the basis of its own European methodology.

For further information, please contact:

Samantha Tjin-Asjoe, Press Officer, EVO: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jeroen de Veth, Public Affairs, EVO: +31 (079) 346 7204: j This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Andrew Traill, Policy Director, European Shippers' Council: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.