Capturing freight carbon with new ISO guidelines

With more than half the world's CO2 emissions generated by the transportation sector, a new International Workshop Agreement (IWA) from ISO represents a major step towards reducing emissions from freight transport.

As billions of tonnes of goods are shipped around the globe to meet consumers’ seasonal tastes and demands, international freight transport has become increasingly important for worldwide deliveries. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), of the 28 % of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the transportation sector, approximately 30 % come from freight. Without action, the threat to the environment may only worsen.

The recently published IWA 16 defines the framework for coherent methods to quantify CO2 emissions of freight transport (total and intensity). It provides a gap analysis identifying starting points and recommending further specification and possible alignment on mode-specific and intermodal levels, including transhipment centres and warehouses.

According to Dr. Verena Ehrler and Alan Lewis, Chairs of the group that developed IWA 16, the added value of the Agreement is the thorough scientific comparison it makes of currently existing standards against the industry and stakeholder perspective, thus building a valid and practical foundation for the development of a global standard for emissions calculation in freight transport chains.

IWA 16 is the result of a workshop kicked off in Berlin, Germany, in July 2014, and hosted by DIN, the German Institute for Standardization. It sets the stage for all transport stakeholders to innovate and find more environmentally efficient solutions.

Article Reference: ISOorg