New guidance being developed by 30+ global companies to support the logistics industry on their journey to
zero emissions

Brussels-As an associate partner of the Global Logistics Emissions Council, ESC welcomes a new initiative of the Smart Freight Centre and WBCSD co-developed with 30+ global companies to advance the quantification of logistics emissions and support the logistics industry on their journey to zero emissions.

Smart Freight Centre and the (WBCSD) are united in a mission to increase transparency on carbon emissions and work towards a net-zero logistics sector. Supported by the World Economic Forum and in partnership with over 30 leading global organizations, this consortium is taking the next steps in achieving net-zero logistics by co-developing an actionable and implementable guidance to quantify the impact of GHG logistics emissions from supplier to final customer: from end-to-end.

ESC Secretary General Godfried Smit emphasizes that “to really live the polluter pays principle, we must measure emissions in an efficient, fair, and harmonized way. And this is exactly what the end -to end guidance program is aiming at”.

This guidance builds upon and complements two existing frameworks. The first being the Smart Freight Centre’s Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) Framework 2.0 – the globally recognized methodology for accounting and reporting of logistics emissions. The second being the WBCSD’s Pathfinder Framework – the guidance for accounting and exchange of product life cycle emissions.

The objective of this guidance is to enable companies to better understand and track their carbon emissions on a granular operational level, enhance industry collaboration and support businesses in the implementation of their decarbonization strategies and achievement of net-zero targets.

This guidance and its co-development with all partners spans across the entire supply chain – from supplier to customer – to fit and meet the industry’s need when it comes to decarbonizing their entire footprint. By bringing forward different use cases and associated business challenges in quantifying logistics emissions the Guidance will be practical and applicable to support each organizations decarbonization strategy.

The guidance will be published by the end of 2022, with an intended formal launch planned at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2023.