Research Report

Logistics companies and their impact on the environment or greenhouse gasses

Introduction

Background

Greenhouse gas and CO2 gas emissions make a significant and effective contribution to environmental and atmospheric change. In today’s developing technology and rapid development of the economy is also creating an impact on the environment in an adverse manner as companies like logistics are using energy (fuel) for their freight transport (McKinnon, et al., 2015). The fuel consumption by the company is contributing to global warming and also producing different harmful gases which harm the environment and human life.

Linfox is an Australian logistics and supply chain solutions and services established by Lindsay Fox in 1956. In Australia, it is one of the largest supply chain service companies which provide its services across the world. Linfox provides different logistics services to other multinational companies such as delivering fuel, retail goods and so on (Linfox, 2017). In addition, Linfox includes different logistics transport services like road freight, air freight, rail freight and ocean freight service across the Asia Pacific. However, the company also expanded its operations by the acquisition of two different companies FCL and Mayne logistics and also company using key technologies to reduce the emissions.

Problem definition and justification

This study focuses in depth on the impact of logistics companies on environmental change in relation to CO2 and greenhouse gas. This article is concern more about the impact on the environment due to high fuel consumption and CO2 & greenhouse emissions. The problem is that logistics companies are using various freight transports services and for that company is utilizing the fuel and from that CO2 and greenhouse gas emission is impacting on the environment (Palmer & Piecyk, 2010). This reduction of emission affects the customer’s delivery on time for that company is required to adopt new technology and way to reduce the fuel consumption for protecting the environment. The justification to this research study is that it will provide clarity and develop an understanding of the impact of CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, this study will also justify the topic by developing the knowledge and learning related to the impact of the emission of harmful gas on the environment.

Research Aims /Objectives

The main purpose or aim of this report is to examine the impact of logistics companies on CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions so that logistics companies can develop and improve their business process to a large extent. In addition, the following research objectives are required to be accomplished for achieving a research aim successfully in this research study:

• To identify the key factors impacting greenhouse gas or CO2 emission from logistics transport
• To determine the relationship between the fuel consumption by logistics companies and greenhouse gas emissions
• To recommend ways which will help in eliminating the emission of CO2 and greenhouse gas emission on the environment

Literature review

According to Dekker, et al., (2012) logistic companies have their high impact on the environment by consuming fuel through transportation. Logistics companies use the high consumption of the energy and also it burns most of the petroleum products which impacts on the environment. In the concern of LINFOX Company, logistic company affects highly on the environment because it uses the transportation vehicle that contributes to the global warming by the emission of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases in the environment. In the words of Wang, et al., (2012) the fuel consumption by logistic companies increases the pollution of the environment due to enhancement in the number of transportation vehicles.

At the same time Dekker, et al., (2012) defines that vehicles are the major source of pollution in the air through the emission of CO2, HC (hydrocarbons), Nitrogen oxides, carbon dust, tetraethyl lead, etc. that affect the climate also. It is said that the emerging greenhouse gas is affecting the environment such as the atmosphere of the earth, increase in the warmness on earth etc. The air pollution which is raised by the transportation of the logistics companies can provide the negative effects on the earth such as remove the quality of the air, acid raining, smog during the day, change in the climate etc. On the other hand, Tang and Zhou, (2012) describe that in order to the emission of the level of greenhouse gas is affecting human health though increasing the diseases in the human body.

The research of Feng, et al., (2013) stated that the logistic companies require the high consumption of energy for vehicle operation in transportation that increases the pollution of the environment. The polluted air is taken by human beings in respiration that increases diseases and is highly harmful to the patient of respiration disease. The logistic companies are playing a vital role in the enhancement of the greenhouse gases due to using transportation vehicles because it consumes too much fuel in the process. In the same concern this Plambeck (2012), the human activates are also affected by the greenhouse gas emissions that change the climate of the environment. Global warming is highly harmful to human life and provides a long term cause to the natural environment.

The logistics companies are affecting the transportation system by making the traffics in the big cities and this traffic consumes additional fuel which provides more air pollution to the environment. In support of this Wang, et al., (2012) logistics companies are provided with the social benefits of transportation and increase the productively but it impacts on the environmental system by providing the pollution by the use of vehicles. In the research of Smith et al., (2013) it is said that transportation is the highly dominant source of the emission of pollution in the environment and it provides multiple effects on nature. These impacts have three are categories, direct impact, indirect impact and cumulative impacts.

If any transportation activity provides the immediate consequence on the environment and it is easy to understand the relationship between the cause and effect like noise pollution and carbon monoxide emissions. According to Berners-Lee, et al., (2012) the transport activates of the logistics companies are also includes the indirect impacts on the environment which have high consequence than the direct impacts. The indirect impacts are more difficult to understand by everyone because the outcomes are indirectly linked with the transport vehicles. In support of this Wang, et al., (2012) the cumulative impacts of the transport activate can provide the multiplicative, additive and synergetic consequence to the nature by changing the effects timely on the ecosystem. It can provide unpredictable effects on the climate and nature with changes.

Logistics companies should provide the transportation with the high quailed transportation vehicle which has a quality of emission on low pollution to the environment. In addition to this, Dekker, et al., (2012) defines that the companies who are offering the facility of the logistics should think about the impacts on the environment to save the earth from many harmful effects and provide the solutions it. The logistics companies should make effective planning and implementation for moving goods and supplying services for reducing the environmental impact of the high transitions which can occur due to lack of planning. According to the LINFOX Company of logistics, they provide effective management in transportation for reducing the negative impact of the logistics on the environment. On the other hand, Tang and Zhou, (2012) describe that it uses the management in transport routes, transport method and transport vehicle according to the load and given time. Instead of using the road path, the logistics companies should use the rail or water paths for moving the freight. It will further decrease the environmental effect of logistics.

Research methodology

The objective behind this study is to identify the key factors impacting greenhouse gas or carbon dioxide emission from logistic transports, to find out the relationship between the fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by logistics companies and to provide the ways for helping in eliminating the emission of CO2 and greenhouse gas emission. In this research, qualitative research methods are used by the researcher. The overall research is used in this study is the deductive approach because all the data are taken from secondary sources like already established theories. In addition to this, this study provides the impacts of the greenhouse gas emissions by the logistic companies by the use of its transport activate. In this research, all the data are collected from secondary data sources like articles, journals, websites etc. The secondary data collection method provides a depth understanding to the researcher about the research objective and helps to improve the quality of service. The impacts of the greenhouse gas emission can be found in the secondary data sources with the reference of the LINFOX Company data. The research can be reliable by the access of the relevant data for the research outcome. In this research, the researcher selected the appropriate methods for analyzing the data effectively and selected the content analysis method to make successful this research.

The content analysis method is helpful for the researcher to find out a better understanding of the data for the successful outcome of the research. Additionally, the researcher thinks about ethical issues because it is a very important part of the research methodology. The research includes several kinds of ethical issues such as plagiarism, copyright, etc. The researcher needs to solve the issues related to plagiarism as well as copyright and provide the correct and appropriate referencing. The researcher should overcome the ethical issues for the successful accomplishment of the research. In this research, the researcher followed the ethical consideration with respect to the secondary data providers. The research methodology provided a successful outcome to the research by the use of appropriate methods and techniques. The requirements and objectives of the research will be analyzed by the selection of the appropriate options by the researcher at the time of requirement. The research methodology also includes the techniques of the data gathering and analysis in this part for the successful outcome of the research.

Findings

Under this section, the impact of CO2 and greenhouse emission is identified in context to the Linfox Logistics Company. The findings from this study are that there is a large number of companies that are creating a high impact on the environment from their high fuel consumption as it results in more CO2 and greenhouse emissions (Gross, et al., 2012). Moreover, it is also identified that emission of gases in large amount is depleting the earth environment quickly and this result into the death of human and animal’s life as well as an increase in the diseases.

The above-stated graph indicates that in the logistics business, there is the emission of gas which harms the environment to large extent. There are different types of logistics and transport activities which company’s uses for providing services to customers like road freight, air freight, rail freight, ocean freight are some transport services (McKinnon, et al., 2009). These all services required an energy system for that they consume a large amount of fuel and that results in high emission of harmful gases.

The above-stated figure helps in understanding and determining that how Linfox company has reduced emission of CO2 and greenhouse gas. However, it can be easily seen that company has consistently reduced emissions by taking a range of initiatives under the GreenFox sustainability program like-new truck technologies, efficient warehouse systems, best use of equipment and many more (Seneviratne, et al., 2016). In addition to this finding, it is also identified that in the year 2007, Linfox decided to reduce its impact on the environment by setting a target that in the coming 8 years company will reduce 50 % of greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions (Linfox, 2017).

Moreover, this graph indicates a clear picture that Linfox Logistics Company has reduced the emission of gas from the year 2007 but in the year 2009-10, the emission of gas raised to a peak level till the year 2012-13. But after that, the company again developed its concern by improving its technologies and services in order to achieve a fall in emission gas (Samimi & Zarinabadi, 2012). The other findings related to the impact on the environment is that logistics companies are developing a separate sustainability policy for the long term and also emphasizing on using more renewable as one effective contributor in lowering gas emissions.

The above figure demonstrates or projects that CO2 gas emission in relation to the Australian civil domestic transport. This graphical representation of gas emission helped in relating the energy use and CO2 & greenhouse gas directly. This graph indicates three different scenarios i.e., low scenario, high scenario and base year scenario. On the other hand, it is also identified that Linfox conducted a separate emission test known as Dipetane fuel treatment in which fuel consumption effects are also determined (McKinnon, et al., 2015). In concern to it, it is studied by Linfox in order to determine the capabilities of Dipetane and also to reduce the fuel consumption and emission. However, the test result is summarized inefficient manner such as carbon dioxide reduced to 23 %, Nitrogen Oxide reduced to 35.4%, Sulphur oxide reduced to 26.8 % and so on. At the same time, Linfox logistics reduced its fuel consumption by 7.5% and that result in the improvement in the energy efficiency of the freight transport services.

Discussion

From the above findings, it can be discussed that logistics companies are encouraging and developing their concern for reduction of emission of gases and protecting the environment. In a similar manner, Linfox is also developed its concern and care for the environment for which the company decided to distribute the customer’s products and services in the best manner without harming or producing more harmful CO2 or greenhouse gas (Harris, et al., 2011). This study helped in identifying the different factors which are creating the impact on the environment due to high emission of harmful gases are pollution, global warming and high consumption of fuel. These factors are affecting the environment in an adverse manner to a large extent as these harmful gases are developed from the fuel or energy used by the logistics companies.

On the other side, the above study helped in understanding that it is important to reduce the environmental impact by encouraging the logistics provider to initiate in minimizing the emission effect and also to improve the energy efficiency of the transport services. This improvement and development in the transport services help the company to deliver the best service solutions to the customers efficiently and effectively (Chaabane, et al., 2012). However, logistics companies are required to adopt new technologies which help them in protecting the environment and reduction of emission gas. At the same time, Linfox is also facing problem-related with the transportation system because in big cities, there is high traffic and for that road, transportation vehicles require more fuel consumption. This high consumption of fuel affects in the form of air pollution as the vehicles release the pollution which affects directly on the human health.

On the other hand, figure 2 is indicating that logistics provider like Linfox is taking initiative and playing an important role in supporting the Australian government in improving the environmental condition and also leading to achieve a zero-carbon outcome. Moreover, the company also provided drivers with training to reduce the consumption of fuel and the more use of smarter lighting systems for reducing electricity usage. But at the same time, McKinnon, et al., (2015) stated that for identifying the environmental impact, carbon mapping is used by the logistics companies. In the research study of Dey, et al., (2011), it is identified that the relationship between fuel consumption and emission of harmful gases is adverse or negative.  This is because more consumption of the fuel will release more different harmful gas and that develop more dangerous diseases and pollution in the air of the environment. Moreover, this study also supported in understanding the relationships that fuel consumption requirement need is high in logistics companies but if fuel consumption decreases then it impacts directly & positively on the reduction of harmful gas. From figure 1, the result can be easily interpreted that road transport is releasing high pollution in the environment in comparison to the other freight transport.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The above study helped in concluding that logistics companies are creating a huge impact on the environment due to the emission of CO2 and greenhouse gas. This study helped in developing knowledge that how to assess the CO2 and greenhouse gas in relation to the fuel consumption by the logistics companies. This paper focused on determining the relation between fuel consumption and CO2 and greenhouse gas emission impact on the environment. With the help of this comparison, it became easy to understand and identify the ways which help the company in reducing the emission. The relation between them develops pollution, harmful gas, global warming which damages human life and develop difficulty to survive in the polluted environment.

The recommendation to the Linfox logistic is that they need to develop a new classification model of logistics sites so that the energy intensity of the processes and influence can be improved. At the same time, logistics companies like Linfox need to develop a suitable decarbonization strategy in order to protect the environment by aiming to reduce the carbon intensity impact. At last, it is easy to conclude that logistics companies like Linfox are required to improve and adopt new energy technology or transport system which helps in reducing the harmful gas emission by 50 % on the environment.

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