How to calculate CO2 emissions for transport companies

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Are you looking to reduce the carbon footprint of your transport and logistics operations? Or struggling to meet client demands for emissions data? Or are you simply trying to figure out your CO₂e emissions baseline?

Whatever the reason you’re looking to calculate emissions, you can follow our 5-step guide to accurately calculate CO₂e emissions across your operations. But before diving into the calculation methodology, let’s first walk through the different types of emissions.

What are Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions?

Before you start calculating emissions, you need to understand the three main types of emissions that may apply to your business.

Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from sources that the company owns or controls. Examples include emissions from fuel used by their transport fleet and gases released from refrigerants in commercial cooling equipment like air conditioners and refrigerators. 

Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the consumption of purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling i.e. energy that is generated off-site. Examples of scope 2 emissions include emissions from electricity used by your office buildings and warehouses. 

Scope 3 emissions are all emissions that are not produced by the company’s assets or the activities it controls, but that the company is indirectly responsible for up and down its value chain. Examples of scope 3 emissions include emissions from business travel, waste disposal, and emissions from purchased goods and services.

In recent years, there has also been some talk of introducing scope 4 emissions to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP). The idea behind scope 4 is to inspire innovation in supply chains, by providing a framework for companies to calculate emissions that are avoided through R&D innovations. Since scope 4 emissions are still in the early days, we’ll focus on scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in this article.

5 steps to calculating CO₂e emissions from transport and logistics activities

Now that you know the main types of emissions, you can get started with calculating emissions for your operations. Here are the 5 main steps: 

1. Determine which types of emissions to track 

Before you start doing any calculations, you need to understand exactly which emissions are relevant for your company. This involves assessing your entire value chain to figure out the emissions you directly emit (scope 1), the emissions that are emitted due to the energy you use (scope 2), and all other emissions you indirectly emit through your value chain activities (scope 3). 

You can do this by mapping out your value chain and listing potential Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions from activities at each stage. This is also useful to see which activities are likely to be responsible for the majority of your emissions. Examples of transport and logistics related activities include: 

• Transportation of client’s goods (scope 1)
• Handling of your shipments by a carrier or LSP (scope 3)
• Electricity for office buildings and storage facilities (scope 2) 
• Business travel or employee commutes (scope 3)

2. Select an ISO 14083-compliant calculation methodology 

Once you’ve mapped the emissions types for every stage of your value chain, you need to choose a tried-and-tested methodology for calculating emissions. You can choose between spend-based, activity-based, and hybrid calculation methodologies. 

• Spend-based methodologies use data on the amount of money paid to your supply chain partners for certain goods and services, multiplied by an emissions factor. 
• Activity-based methodologies use data on how many units of a good or a material (e.g. liters of fuel or kg of material), multiplied by the emissions factor. 
• Hybrid methodologies: for the most accurate emissions calculation, the GHG Protocol recommends choosing a hybrid calculation methodology that primarily uses activity data, but supplements it with spend-based data where activity data isn’t sufficient. The EU’s new emissions calculation standard, CountEmissionsEU, is also aligned with this approach. 

As you’ll see, all of these methodologies require you to use an emissions factor. Not sure what an emissions factor is? Well, according to the European Environment Agency’s definition, an emissions factor is “the estimated average emission rate of a given pollutant for a given source, relative to units of activity”. 

Emissions factors essentially quantify the amount of GHG emissions produced per unit of activity, such as fuel consumption, distance traveled, or freight weight. It is typically expressed in terms of CO₂ emissions per kilometer, per liter of fuel, or per ton of transported goods.

While the emissions factor you use is up to each individual company, make sure that you’re using emissions factors from a reputable source and that you’re in compliance with ISO 14083. Examples include the GLEC Framework, CO2Emissiefactoren (NL), DEFRA (UK), EPA (US), or IPCC.

For companies that manage or outsource transport or logistics activities, we recommend using the GLEC Framework as your emissions calculation methodology and source of emissions factors. Most carbon accounting calculators and software are based on the GLEC framework (but more on that later!). 

3. Collect and validate data 

No matter which calculation methodology you choose, you’ll need to collect data from each activity and asset in your value chain, such as company vehicles (owned and leased), transportation journeys, purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling, business travel, and more. 

Your calculation methodology will determine exactly which data points you’ll need to collect, however we’ve summarized the main data points needed for emissions calculation and how to collect them in this article. 

For spend-based methodologies, you’ll need to collect data on the amount of money paid to your supply chain partners for certain goods and services. Whereas for activity-based methodologies, you’ll need data on how many liters of fuels and how many kg of each material were purchased. 

As you can imagine, this can take a lot of hours to collect from hundreds of different sources unless you have a way to automatically collect and standardize the data. That’s where carbon accounting tools come in—pulling and consolidating data from across your activities in one place.  

4. Calculate carbon emissions by transport type 

Now that you’ve determined which emissions to measure, decided on your calculation methodology, and figured out how to collect the data, the next step is to actually calculate the carbon emissions. 

Simple example for a truck in the Netherlands

We’ve already shared some simple calculation methodologies, but it’s much easier to understand how this works if you see the calculation in action. So here’s an example of how to calculate the emissions of a diesel truck using an activity-based methodology: 

The formula is CO₂ Emissions = Quantity of fuel × Emission Factor per quantity of fuel type

Let’s assume a truck leaves its depot in the suburbs of Amsterdam, collects a container at Schiphol Airport, and makes 3 deliveries in Rotterdam. The total kilometers traveled will be 139 km. 

Depot → Schiphol Airport 9 km 
Schiphol Airport → Rotterdam 59 km
Rotterdam → 3 deliveries 12 km
Return to depot 59 km
= 139 km 

The average consumption of diesel trucks is 0.30 liters of diesel per km, so this journey will use approximately 41.7 liters of diesel. 

Based on the GLEC Framework, the CO₂ emission factor for B7 diesel in Europe is 3.31 kg CO₂e per liter.

So the total emissions from this journey is: 

41.7 liters of Diesel x 3.31 KG CO₂e per liter = 138.03 kg CO₂e

The total emissions can then be allocated over the individual deliveries, based on their share of total transport activity. The transport activity is the distance for a shipment from origin to destination multiplied by the weight. In this example we assume that the weight of each delivery is the same, meaning that each delivery has emissions of 46.01 KG CO2e (the total emissions from the journey divided by 3). 

This is a simplified example but it shows you how to calculate transport emissions for a truck for a one-day period. You can simply repeat this calculation for other journeys, but don’t forget to use a suitable Emission Factor for the transport mode and your region. 

5. Consolidate and report on emissions data 

The final step is to consolidate all of your emissions calculations to determine the total emissions for your company. While the calculation itself is straightforward, consolidating emissions data for thousands of journeys, multiple transport modes (road, ocean freight, air, etc.), and other types of emissions can involve hundreds of complex Excel sheets. 

Luckily, there’s an easier way—carbon accounting software. 

How carbon accounting software makes calculating CO₂e emissions easier and hassle-free

It is technically possible to collect data and calculate emissions manually, but it creates a huge admin burden, takes hundreds of hours each time, and is ultimately more of an estimation than an accurate count. 

That’s why transport and logistics companies are using carbon accounting software to calculate, analyze, and report on their emissions. This software saves time by automating data collection and reporting, and provides deep insights on how companies can improve the efficiency of their operations to reduce both costs and emissions, as well as offering more sustainable options to their clients. 

Carbon accounting software also makes it easier to share emissions data with clients and to export data needed for sustainability reporting with the click of a button. And if you’re looking for carbon accounting software designed to make calculating and reporting on supply-chain-related CO₂e emissions hassle-free, then look no further than BigMile. 

What are the benefits of calculating CO₂e emissions? 

So now you know how to calculate CO₂e emissions for your company, but you’re likely also interested in the benefits of doing so, beyond ‘doing the right thing’. So let’s have a look at the business benefits of emissions calculation. 

Firstly, establishing and analyzing your emissions baseline helps you identify your emissions hotspots and figure out the low-hanging fruit opportunities to reduce both costs and emissions e.g. by combining loads or optimizing routes. As Martijn Scheffers explains, ‘measuring is knowing’: 

Some carbon accounting solutions also give you scenario modelling tools to help you make better investment decisions by comparing the costs and emissions impact of different options. 

Secondly, calculating CO₂e emissions means you have accurate emissions data to share with clients who increasingly expect emissions data for each of their shipment or activities, as well as being able to provide accurate emissions estimates when requested in tenders or contract negotiations. This helps you retain existing customers and continue building your customer base. 

Finally, more and more jurisdictions are introducing sustainability reporting requirements, even for small and medium-sized enterprises. Already having your emissions baseline and processes in place ensures you’re ahead of the game and avoids last minute stress if you’re required to report sustainability data externally in the future. 

Why leading transport and logistics companies choose BigMile for emissions calculation

Whether you’re trying to move from manual, labor-intensive spreadsheet calculation or whether you’re just starting the journey of emissions measurement, BigMile makes carbon accounting hassle-free—so you can focus on delivering value for your clients. 

With our platform, you can accurately calculate shipment-level emissions in line with global standards such as ISO 14083, get insights on how to reduce your emissions and operational costs, provide customized reports to your clients, and comply with existing and emerging sustainability reporting requirements.

We also partner with leading software providers to add our Emissions API to their platforms, so why not check if your existing supply chain systems include the BigMile API (and if not, you can always make a request to add it). 

Ready to get started? Join 250+ companies like Farm Trans, Rittal, and De Rijke Group who are using BigMile to calculate their carbon footprint. Simply book a demo and we’ll give you a personalized tour of our platform and how it can help you.