FTA fronts scheme to tackle transport carbon emissions03 February 2010

As the dust settled on last year's Copenhagen climate change summit, with no definitive direction, the finishing touches were being put on a new, voluntary scheme devised to highlight areas where the freight community can cut carbon emissions.

Led by the Freight Transport Association (FTA), the Logistics Carbon Reduction Scheme (LCRS) represents an environmental commitment from the sector to combat issues of climate change.

"I raised the issue at one of my president's council meetings, as I felt we, as an industry, were far too reactive to policies being set by government, and that it should be us setting the agenda," says FTA president, Stewart Oades.

"The aim of the LCRS is to set out a framework where we offer a view of how the sector should respond to climate change, by identifying issues and trying to direct the government by letting them know what we think."

Oades says the scheme will set out a calculation for each FTA member by reporting the volume of fuel used, giving it the corresponding carbon emissions from the fleet. The organisation believes that this data – the first annual report will be produced in January 2011 – will provide a benchmark for the freight sector's carbon footprint, so providing reliable evidence against which to make strategy decisions.

"We are setting baselines where carbon consumption is concerned," he continues. "We want to capture carbon dioxide emissions for each of the members that we operate in the scheme."

LCRS currently involves more than 23,000 commercial vehicles from 12 participating members, which include John Lewis Partnership, Boots, Arla Foods, 3663 and EDF Energy.

"We have signed up some very large fleets and are looking to more large fleets joining us," says Oades, revealing that supermarkets are one group near the top of his hitlist. "We are opening the scheme up to all operators, to join. They don't have to be FTA members," says Oades. Deadline for registration for the scheme is 31 March.

Author
John Challen

Related Companies
Freight Transport Association Ltd

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