In a move to offer its customers a streamlined method for reducing the climate impact of transport emissions, logistics service provider (LSP) The Rhenus Group will team with the freight transportation emissions tracking and reduction portal provider Shipzero, the firms said.
Under the agreement, Rhenus customers gain access to a “book and claim” solution designed to reduce the climate impact of global transport, covering alternative fuels and battery-electric vehicles across air, ocean, and road transport.
The strategy helps Rhenus to reduce the climate impact of transport emissions in areas where the company has no direct influence over the underlying assets, Rhenus said. Book and claim enables that approach by allowing companies to support lower-emission transport solutions outside the physical transport chain of a specific shipment, with the climate benefit allocated through a verified accounting system.
Shipzero supports that process by providing its auditable platform, enabling companies to be less reliant on manual processes and data processing.
The system works by employing a trusted accounting system to prove that an LSP, carrier, or shipper paid for renewable fuels, whether those specific gallons of liquid were used in the particular truck that hauled their load or not.
DHL, another third party logistics provider (3PL), defines book and claim as a clever solution to a knotty problem. DHL points out that sustainable fuels are increasingly available as alternatives to diesel, kerosene, and other fossil fuels. But a single user can’t pull up to any pump and fill their truck or plane with sustainable fuels, since those green alternatives are often blended with fossil-based fuels, so there’s no way to track how much of it goes into one individual vehicle.
The solution to that riddle is to use book and claim as a chain-of-custody model that tracks and documents the environmental benefits of sustainable fuels. “It’s a virtual solution to a physical problem based on a one-atmosphere approach. All GHG emissions enter the same atmosphere, so as far as Mother Earth is concerned, it doesn’t matter which vehicle, vessel, or aircraft is burning sustainable fuels instead of fossil fuels,” DHL said.