7 things that urban supply chain can do to improve air quality and tackle climate change

Sustainability managers can have a real impact on the logistics industry. So it is not surprising that there are many things that are possible to improve the environmental performance of the fleets within their company. Here are some of the ways that businesses can not only meet their legal obligations but show that they are leading lights in what they do.

Establish an environmental fleet policy. You have to get buy in from the top, and you have to take the time to get it written down and agreed as a fleet management policy. This will, above all, demonstrate a commitment to reducing emissions at all levels. There are lots of best practice guides for establishing these policies. We recommend the LoCity Toolkit.

Leasing lower emission vehicles. Going onto what seems to be the obvious thing. But this isn’t just a case of having vehicles that balance the lowest costs with the highest environmental performance. Think about introducing policies that limit the CO2 emissions from your vehicles to show your commitment to being more environmentally responsible, or more rigorously consider how the vehicles you are offering are meeting the changing needs of clients.

Train your drivers in how to drive in an environmentally-friendly manner. Fleet Managers will often know how to communicate with drivers the best, and they have been training your drivers in how to drive in an economically advantageous manner for years. Supplement that with training on how to reduce their exhaust emissions. Share with them the locations where air quality is poor, so they know where to drive more carefully. EMSOL can also help identify best behavior from drivers which can then be shared within the team, so everyone improves.

Reduce business miles. While many journeys made by drivers may be justified, all mileage must be necessary. Simply by monitoring the trips taken by drivers and fuel consumption, 5% of miles can be knocked off the total mileage. Whats more, with more accurate monitoring of routes taken and types of trips undertaken with ever more accurate monitoring equipment, opportunities for consolidation and reduction can be more easily identified.

Seriously look at the layout of your vehicle yards. Did you know that air pollution is related not just to the number of polluting vehicles, and engine type, but also how they are driven. High revving moves such as reversing, parking, and performing low speed moves around a yard generate more air pollution compared to driving on the open road. Just reorganising the layout of your yard to reduce these moves could have a big impact.

Don’t just monitor your environmental performance, take action. The businesses will regularly collect data of the mileage and fuel consumption of the vehicles in your care, and you are well-versed in taking action on this data. By adding air quality emissions data, and having that data available in real-time so that you can take action against breaches (like EMSOL enables), gives you even more power to your elbow.

Join a local a car club. One of a suite of options for making the best use of your grey fleet. But if you are finding that your pool car is not being used as often, or is getting long in the tooth, why not sign the business up to a local car club? Not only does this remove this management responsibility from you, but it can also encourage your staff to leave their car at home if they have access to a car for their work.

We know that achieving your clean air and net zero targets is difficult. However, if you are reading this, its a good sign you are one of the businesses that are stepping up and committing to aggressive clean air and net zero targets for some time in the future. The problem is that these targets feel too long range and unattainable. The problem is not knowing how to start taking real action right now to begin hitting those targets, or if you take action… if the action is having the right impact. Reducing emissions from supply and logistics chain vehicles is a perfect place to start, but the data to take control from vehicles across multiple fleet operators currently isn’t available in one place so many are unable to understand the environmental impact.

Imagine if instead, that businesses and their fleet operators could get a unified view of emissions from all vehicles transiting their different sites and have the information to take control and begin delivering on their targets.

That’s EMSOL.