The environmental impact of transport
It is widely recognised that there are two basic ways of reducing the environmental impact of food transport, and indeed transport generally:
- Fewer miles. In this case the environmental impact is reduced by reducing the distance travelled with a corresponding reduction in emissions, congestion, carbon, accidents and noise.
- Friendlier miles. Here the environmental impact of a given mile travelled is reduced by such things as using less ‘damaging’ forms of transport or by technological improvements in vehicle and fuel technologies to reduce the impact of any given mile.
These two principles form the basis of good practice and the vast majority of sustainable distribution transport initiatives can be classified in one of these two ways.
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The 5 step process |
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Helping companies capture and record kms saved
Based around a 5 step process developed by ECR UK, the Savings Calculator uses kilometres travelled, litres of fuel used and tonnes lifted as the key measures to calculate both ‘fewer’ and ‘friendlier’ kms saved.
Capturing and recording kms saved using the Savings Calculator will enable ECR UK to identify and foster best practice sustainable transport initiatives, sharing the learnings across the wider industry.
Technical advice on using the Savings Calculator
It is recommended that MS Excel version 2003 be used to run the Calculator. Macro security settings should be set to medium (or low) in order to use the macro functionality contained in this tool. If macro security settings are adjusted after the Calculator is opened, it will be necessary to close and re-open it to enable the macros.
Download your free copy here
Acknowledgements
IGD and ECR UK would like to thank Ian Keilty (Development Director, Booker), Andrew Morris (Physical Distribution Leader, P&G) and Prof. Alan McKinnon (Heriot Watt University) for their support and contribution in developing this calculator.
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