Decarbonation Plan Challenges: unique private workshops
"Reducing the impact of logistics on our environment and helping to achieve carbon neutrality requires us to go well beyond the still too-dominant view thatan energy transition of heavy goods vehicles to biofuels, electric or hydrogen alone is sufficient, and that it's up to hauliers to solve the whole problem." That's how Yann Briand, one of our 2 challengers, sums up the need to work together to improve companies' decarbonization strategies. How can we do this? By sharing and questioning.
Since 2023, in a small, private setting, 3 engaging workshops have been conducted as part of France Supply Chain's SuppplyChain4Good Lab in collaboration with 2 think tanks. Find out more in this cross-interview with their experts.
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Yann BRIANDChief Scientific Officer - Deep Decarbonization Pathways (DDP) initiative Climate, Energy and Transport expert
L'Iddri is a think tank that facilitates the transition to sustainable development. -
Reuben FISHERFreight Project Manager
The Shift Project is a think tank that promotes a carbon-free economy.
Why did IDDRI and The Shift Project get involved in these workshops?
The point of these exchanges is to build a space of trust where companies can humbly present where they are in their thinking, explain their issues, and accept criticism. What brings us together must be the desire to improve and perform even better. The organization of these dialogues must continue to allow the freedom of tone that is their strength, and prevent them from becoming an exercise in communication between themselves. It must continue to bring together supply chain managers, as well as CSR, purchasing, sales and even CFO managers, and their teams!
Decarbonization challenges are an opportunity for participating companies to share something critical - how to reconcile economic will (profits, growth) with energy and climate imperatives. Indeed, our view at The Shift Project is that physical limits such as the amount of energy available at a given moment, or the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, are even more constraining than economic concepts.
Workshop on Groupe Avril premises
What does "sharing your decarbonization plan" mean for the companies you challenge?
Companies explain how they are transforming themselves to make their activities and services sustainable in the decades to come, and in the short term we use different reading grids for this. For a start, if the company's key figures make no mention of energy or emissions, this gives the impression that the company thinks it can operate "above ground", without needing energy or emitting greenhouse gases. When companies' "one pagers" include this information, at the same level & in the same way as sales, EBITDA, number of employees or sites worldwide, we'll have taken an interesting step!
To go into more detail, we then look at how the company valuesCO2 - does it apply an internal price per tonne ofCO2, & if so, in what contexts - only for investments or also for day-to-day purchases? Is the price the same as for avoided emissions? If not, what is the logic behind the difference? Going a step further, we've seen corporate financial results presented net of the financial impact ofCO2.
This means that companies need to share the main transformations they wish to implement and, above all, the conditions they are putting in place to achieve them! For example, this may mean reviewing with suppliers and customers the logistics organizations specific to each value chain and to each individual company, which limit the possible logistics choices that can be made, such as moving away from an all-truck approach. This means changing the constraints of logistics services, in terms of cost and lead times, for example. It may also mean rethinking purchasing and commercial strategies to rethink products and the location of suppliers and customers, in order to reduce the quantities, weights or volumes used, and also the distances to be covered between the raw material and the end customer. In short, reducing freight transport emissions requires strong action on the part of shippers, in partnership with their logisticians and transporters, right through to the involvement of suppliers and end customers!
To properly consider and implement these transformations, we need to adopt a long-term perspective that goes well beyond 5 to 10 years, in order to understand our limits and be in a position to consider these more structural changes, which are nonetheless necessary if we are to achieve carbon neutrality. What's more, the complex issue facing companies and all decision-makers today is that these organizational changes, complementary to technological ones, need to be initiated today, but will bear fruit sometimes only several years later, and will have an impact on the distribution of value within the company and sometimes within the value chain.
The experts from the 2 think tanks and 2 challengers: Pénélope Laigo, Sustainability & QHSE Group Director FM Logistic Corporate and Lucie Aitsahalia, Head of Energy and Environment FM Logistic Group.
What are the critical elements that need to be addressed in addition to theCO2calculation?
To better understand how decisions can change, we are discussing and will continue to discuss with the diversity of France Supply Chain companies (shippers, logisticians and carriers) the fact of :
- adopt a systemic strategy combining technological and organizational transformations;
- think ahead to 2050 to revisit the coherence of choices for the next 5 years.
On the whole, apart from building consumption, energy consumption is poorly monitored, both in terms of total quantity and the types of energy used. This is rather surprising for a sector whose dependence on liquid fossil fuels is flagrant, given that a recent Shift report (for the French Ministry of the Armed Forces) indicates a drop of several tens of percent in the amount of oil available by 2050. So it's critical to anticipate & begin the energy transformation today, otherwise companies risk finding themselves like stranded assets in the energy-constrained world that's looming.
Congratulations to the 8 companies who have played the game so far:
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Supply Chain Project Director
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Internship - Supply Chain Project Manager M/F
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Thank you gentlemen for your testimonials and your investment in this project.
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The Shift Data Portal
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Companies and carbon neutrality, a narrative of systemic transformation and cooperation: Illustration of the freight transport sector
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How the Rail Freight Development Strategy can boost the sector's ambitions in France
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Deep decarbonization trajectories for freight transport in France
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Shortening global supply chains, the key to decarbonizing transport
