Hi everyone,
A quick question: When a truck arrives at a company and returns empty, should the emissions from the return trip also be counted in the emissions calculations for that transport?
Kind regard
Jelte
Hi Jelte
If you are 100% sure it returns empty then yes this should be accounted for. For example in the case the transport vehicle is owned by the company, I can imagine this can be the case. However, when dealing with external transport companies, they will optimize their transport as much as possible. In this case it is most likely they will pick up goods again somewhere closeby. Could be a full truck or could be groupage transport.
We have found that it is very difficult to determine exactly how many km of empty transport still needs to be taken into account in that case. We often try to find a middle ground here by choosing average loaded transport instead of 100% loaded, which has a slightly higher emission factor per tkm.
Kind regards
Jens Vancoppenolle
Carbon Footprint & Sustainability Consultant
Neutrologic
2 Likes
Hi Jelte, Jens,
It is optional to account for the backhaul for the GHG Protocol (see scope 3 calculation guidance):
Kind regards,
Steven
Hi Steven
Thanks for the feedback, interesting that it is optional. On the other hand to calculate it, it still requires to know the unladen distance, which is most often not the case. So, I guess most companies will opt not to report it.
Kind regards
Jens Vancoppenolle
Carbon Footprint & Sustainability Consultant
Neutrologic