Knowles on road to zero carbon
East Anglian logistics company Knowles Transport is reducing its corporate carbon footprint with a variety of initiatives including investing in new trucks that run on carbon-neutral HVO, trialling advanced aerodynamic aids, switching materials-handling equipment to electric power and generating 300,000 kWh of electricity per year from solar panels installed on its two million sq ft of warehouse roofing.
The work has been informed by supply chain logistics consultants Davies & Robson, which provided Knowles with a comprehensive analysis of its carbon footprint. Once the appropriate data was gathered and evaluated, Davies & Robson were able to offer recommendations to optimise data collection and refine measurement in future years.
Managing director Alex Knowles commented: “As the need to become more environmentally conscious has increased over the past decade, sustainability has been core value for the business driving procurement and operational decision making. From solar energy generation to truck aerodynamics, we have consistently looked at ways where we can reduce our environmental impact.
“By bringing in Davies & Robson, our aim was to get a clear picture of all emissions across transport, handling and storage services and generate a unit of measurement for each that we can use as a barometer to ensure we are becoming more sustainable despite growing volumes across all service areas. These measurements are Kg CO2e per mile for transport, Kg C02e per pallet in for handling and Kg C02e per pallet week for storage. From the outset we were keen to not only better understand our current footprint but also to develop accurate emissions reporting each service area and to be able to offer every customer their own unique emissions data as they utilise our respective services which is becoming an increasing requirement for customers as they seek to understand their scope 3 emissions.
“With this now in place we can now embark upon a strategised carbon reduction plan in line with our Net Zero roadmap that will take our ability to achieve sustainability goals to the next level.
“The roadmap that we now have in place will not only enhance all our current sustainability focused initiatives that we have in place but also give us scope to explore new ways to decrease our carbon footprint.”
