Space for Profit and Planet − Saving Resources at Warehouse Locations

GHG emissions have been an issue for politicians, scientists and companies for many years. As early as 1992, it was agreed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that all member states must record and regularly report their GHG emissions. This was followed in 1997 by the Kyoto Protocol, in which it was agreed that the Global Warming Potential (GWP) would be used to convert the climate impact of various greenhouse gases into CO2 equivalents, making them comparable and illustrating their impact on climate change. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, which set the goal of limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius, obliged the participating countries to develop national climate protection targets, update them regularly and submit regular reports. The recording of GHG emissions also plays a role here.

The European Union (EU) introduced emissions trading as early as 2005 in response to the Kyoto Protocol. For this purpose, so-called emission rights in the form of certificates were distributed to the industrialized countries that have committed themselves to the Kyoto Protocol. The quantities of emission rights are gradually reduced in order to reduce emissions in the long term. Countries that use fewer emission quotas can sell surplus certificates.This is how the market-based approach of European emissions trading is created. It is one of the EU's central climate protection instruments. One basis for this is the calculation of GHG emissions.

In 2019, the EU Commission adopted the “European Green Deal“, or Green Deal for short. This provides for the EU to become climate-neutral by 2050. This was followed in 2021 by the EU Climate Protection Act, which legally binds the Green Deal targets.

Germany also has national laws and regulations aimed at reducing and monitoring GHG emissions. For example, Germany has had the German Federal Climate Protection Act in place since 2019, which sets reduction targets for GHG emissions for various sectors, such as the Energy Sector, industry, buildings, transportation, agriculture and waste management.

However, the conventions or laws did not specify in detail how GHG emissions should be calculated. For this reason, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) was developed at the end of the 1990s by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as a standard for accounting GHG emissions. The first version of the corporate standard was published in 2001. The GHG Protocol has developed a general approach to accounting for emissions, which is why it is often not sufficient for industry-specific aspects. Over time, others followed, attempting to map the specifics of individual sectors and industries based on the GHG Protocol. Nevertheless, there was still room for interpretation, or they were not used uniformly internationally. In 2012, a European standard for determining GHG emissions in the transportation sector was published, which was only used in Europe.

The aim was therefore to develop an international standard for GHG emissions for transport and logistics locations that can be used uniformly and provides meaningful results. It was important that the calculated GHG emissions can also be assigned to the respective polluters and that key figures can be derived. Fraunhofer IML, led by Kerstin Dobers, has also been working on various projects and with various partners − including the Global Logistics Emission Council (GLEC) − since 2019 to promote the international standard. Her main topic: logistics locations. Around the same time as the working groups for the international standard were forming, the Dortmund research scientists published the “REff Tool“. REff stands for resource efficiency at logistics locations. And in order to use resources efficiently, transparency is needed, which is provided by the calculation of GHG emissions. 

With the help of the REff tool, annual market studies were carried out between 2019 and 2023 as part of the “German, Italian & Latin American consortium for resource efficient logistics hubs & transport“ (GILA) research project, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). These are continued with the GILA partners after the end of the project. In the market studies, operators of logistics locations are asked for primary data on annual resource consumption and logistics processes. While only a small number of 196 European logistics sites from 42 companies participated in the first year of the study, more than 150 international companies with almost 1,000 logistics sites are now taking part in the annual market studies, and the trend is rising. Participating site operators receive their individual GHG emission figures, which are calculated in accordance with international standards. The data is used to gain a better understanding of the environmental performance of logistics locations and to close data gaps. “The aim of collecting the data is to create transparency − also for the companies themselves,“ says Dobers. The findings from the market studies were also incorporated into the development of the international standard, which was published in 2023 as “ISO 14083“.

The REff Tool supports companies in determining their GHG emissions in accordance with ISO 14083 and has been certified by the Smart Freight Center. The tool enables online data entry, which is required for the ISO-compliant GHG emissions calculation of logistics locations. With the free basic version, the annual GHG emissions and theaverage emission intensity value per location can be calculated.  In addition, Fraunhofer IML offers a licensed version that can, for example, record more than 50 locations, shows the calculated GHG emissions in more detail than in the basic version and enables extended calculations such as taking into account the supplier mix for electricityor emissions from the use of transport packaging.

“Only when I know where the emissions are generated and how high they are can I derive suitable reduction measures. The consumption of resources costs money, such as electricity or fuel. A company can save money and conserve resources by making such adjustments. The key to this is transparency and the REff tool provides this“

- Dr. Kerstin Dobers

“Only when I know where the emissions are generated and how high they are can I derive suitable reduction measures. The consumption of resources costs money, such as electricity or fuel. A company can save money and conserve resources by making such adjustments. The key to this is transparency and the REff tool provides this,“ explains Dobers. The tool also makes it possible to monitor developments and reductions over several years. 

“Basically, you can say: reduce, avoid, decarbonize. What that means in detail has to be examined individually,“ says Dobers. For example, routes and processes that are necessary could be made more efficient, thereby reducing resource consumption and emissions. In addition, the fleet or yard logistics could be electrified and converted to renewable energy sources or “green“ electricity.

“Basically, you can say: reduce, avoid, decarbonize. What that means in detail has to be examined individually“

- Dr. Kerstin Dobers

Due to the diversity of logistics locations and different legal requirements worldwide, it has not yet been possible to derive detailed and generally applicable recommendations for reducing GHG emissions. Even though more than 900 logistics locations worldwide have taken part in the market studies to date, the research scientists still face challenges: The locations vary in terms of services, processes, equipment used and resources utilized. In addition, some of the data provided is incomplete, which makes it even more difficult to obtain meaningful, granular results for individual location types. The researchers' aim is to close the data gaps, increase data quality and be able to reliably map all types of logistics locations. This will require significantly more companies to make their data available and more research in location types. However, the market studies are already making it possible to derive initial key figures on the emissions intensity of logistics locations, which are published in the GLEC framework, among others. In addition, companies use their individual key figures for their own calculations, such as in the EcoTransIT World tool, compare their results with those of the market study benchmarks and examine individual savings options.

The logistics industry in particular is under pressure: globalization is increasing emissions in transport chains, while at the same time emissions must be greatly reduced due to legal requirements such as the Green Deal. In addition, resources are becoming increasingly scarce − and therefore more expensive.

The development of the international standard ISO 14083 to calculate GHG emissions in the transport sector is a step towards creating international transparency about GHG emissions in the transport chain, including logistics locations.

For companies, the REff tool can be a tool for calculating GHG emissions in accordance with ISO standards. At the same time, companies can use it to find ways to reduce GHG emissions, conserve resources and save costs. In this way, logistics locations can position themselves to be future proof in the long term.