Carbon Brainprint Case Study: improved delivery vehicle logistics

摘要

Road transport accounts for about 20% of the total GHG emissions of the UK, andHGVs andLGVs are responsible for about one-third of these. The total direct GHGemissions from HGVsand LGVs in 2008 were about 40 Mt CO2e.Dr Andrew Palmer, a Cranfield University visiting fellow and former PhD studentcontributed tothe transport recommendations for the food distribution industryfollowing publication of TheFood Industry Sustainability Strategy. Theserecommendations were taken up by IGD as part ofthe Efficient Consumer Response(ECR - UK) initiative and implemented with 40 leading UKbrands. They reportedthat this initiative had taken off 124 million road miles (equivalent to60million litres of diesel fuel) from UK roads over three years (2007-2009) and163 million roadmiles up to 2010, with a target of 200 million road miles by theend of 2011.The quoted reduction in vehicle use up to 2010 is equivalent to 250 kt CO2e, butthis cannot allbe attributed to Cranfield University's carbon brainprint,because Dr Palmer was only one of theauthors of the report and he was not anemployee of the university at the time. We estimate theattributable brainprintto be 56 kt CO2e with a 95% confidence range of 32-87. Assuming that this ismaintained until 2020, and assuming a 1%/year increase in efficiency independentof thiswork, which will reduce the future brainprint, gives an estimate of 187kt CO2e (102-295) for theperiod 2007-2020.