Tuesday, December 10th, 2024
The ALICE Logistics Innovation Summit session, “Levers and challenges for freight and logistics decarbonisation”, brought together global industry leaders to share and discuss actionable strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of freight transport and logistics. The session explored key levers for decarbonisation, such as electrification, intermodality, and collaborative innovation. It highlighted the need to create partnerships to enable the systemic transitions, addressing the challenges that need to be overcome with a practical approach.
Moderated by Fernando Liesa, Secretary General of ALICE, and featuring the keynote speakers Adrien García (Inter IKEA – Supply Chain Operation), Graham Major-Ex (Sennder), Anders Berger (Volvo Group), and panellists Andreas Josefsson (CLOSER), Szymon Pyzik (Codognotto Italia), the session highlighted real-world examples of decarbonisation initiatives and emphasised the importance to embrace change and lever on collaboration, research, and innovation to accelerate decarbonization in an affordable and competitive way.
Intermodal collaboration: a pathway to lower emissions
Intermodal solutions emerged as a key lever for decarbonising logistics. Multi-stakeholder collaborative projects among shippers[1] demonstrate the potential of shifting freight from road to rail to significantly reduce emissions.
For example, intermodal routes between Spain and Poland launched as per the collaboration of IKEA and INDITEX are already reducing carbon emissions by thousands of tonnes per year, demonstrating the tangible benefits of combining rail and road.
Holistic initiatives such as ALICE EXPRESS allow shippers and Multimodal Transport Operators to co-create transportation solutions aiming at reducing risks of new intermodal solutions. Future extensions to routes such as Poland to Romania are being explored to replicate these results across more corridors.
Electrification of road freight: the cornerstone of decarbonisation
Electrification of road freight, particularly through the adoption of battery electric trucks (eTrucks), was identified as a key driver for reducing logistics emissions. Advances in battery technology are making electric trucks increasingly viable, with ranges now exceeding 400 km and projections of up to 750 km by 2029. Availability of charging infrastructure is the next big thing.
Panellist highlighted that the adoption of zero emission vehicles is not only a transportation problem but a supply chain one. Companies will need to understand clearly the needs and requirements and adapt transportation and logistics operations to get the best out of these technologies and make them not only affordable but competitive compared to fossil fuel solutions.
Electric trucks are already competitive for certain applications (urban, short shuttles with high rotation of voluminous goods) and are expected to reach cost parity with diesel vehicles within a few years, driven by declining battery costs, innovative power sourcing strategies and adapting logistics operations. However, the development of scalable and efficient charging infrastructure remains a key challenge, requiring coordinated efforts between public and private stakeholders.
Projects such as ZEFES, EMPOWER, ESCALATE and NextETRUCK are working to address technical and operational challenges. ALICE is partner or partnering with all of them aiming at gathering knowledge and transfering to its members.
Partnerships and large-scale demonstrations to accelerate transition
Innovation in decarbonisation technologies plays an important role in supporting decarbonization of logistics. Policies also need to evolve to incentivise the uptake of these technologies, while ensuring alignment across regions and sectors and also creating supporting frameworks for accelerated deployment in real life operations.
Heavy-duty vehicles are a particular focus, with large-scale projects and pilot initiatives demonstrating the potential for widespread electrification. Achieving decarbonization goals will require sustained investment in R&I and long-term commitment from industry stakeholders.
As a lever for acceleration, partnerships in larger innovation ecosystems addressing regions or corridors should be in focus of public support and leveraging private investments for scale transition.
Challenges on the way to decarbonisation
Despite significant progress, several challenges need to be addressed to accelerate logistics decarbonisation:
The session concluded with a call for increased support for R&I, greater investment in infrastructure, and stronger partnerships to drive logistics decarbonisation.
For more insights from the ALICE Logistics Innovation Summit, visit the website. Join ALICE and work with a network of experts dedicated to advancing sustainable logistics. Together, we can build a greener, more efficient logistics ecosystem.
