DEVELOPMENT OF EMISSION INTENSITY FACTORS FOR A SOUTH AFRICAN ROAD-FREIGHT LOGISTICS SERVICE PROVIDER

• Martin du Plessis Stellenbosch University
• Joubert van Eeden Stellenbosch University http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9684-2357
• ME Botha Stellenbosch University http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0009-8792

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7166/33-3-2788

Keywords:

carbon emissions, emission intensity factor, logistics service providers, road freight, road transport, South Africa

Abstract

The Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) framework developed logistics emission factors to be used uniformly in North America and Europe. It included an approximation for African countries; however, actual South African emissions were not accurately reflected. Therefore, in this study, carbon emissions factors were calculated using calculated tonne-kilometres and the energy-based methodology. The authors obtained several datasets from a logistics service provider (LSP) consisting of vehicle routes, refuelling data, and freight load data. The project developed factors for each individual trip, for similar repetitive trips, and for the entire data set. These different sets of factors were developed to allow the use of different emission calculation and reporting standards. The LSP could use these emission intensity factors to estimate carbon emissions using the activity-based approach, report emissions according to legislation, and predict how much carbon emissions would be emitted to move a customer’s shipment.