Carrefour trucks: reducing carbon emissions

Having embarked on an ambitious campaign to reduce its carbon footprint, Carrefour has signed up to the 'Cleaner Trucks' campaign launched by the Transport & Environment organisation with the aim of reducing CO2 emissions from trucks.

Although trucks only represent 5% of vehicles on Europe's roads, the European Environment Agency says they emit nearly 20% of all CO2 from the road transport sector. An energy and environmental impact that international organisation Transport & Environment (T&E) has undertaken to reduce by encouraging as many businesses as possible to join its 'Cleaner Trucks' campaign. An initiative whereby the signatories undertake to reduce the carbon footprint of their truck fleet by 20% by 2025. Launched as part of an even more ambitious programme to reduce its transport-related CO2 emissions (-30% by 2025), it was logical for Carrefour to join the movement as transporting goods by road is expected to increase worldwide by more than 50% between 2010 and 2050.

Transport & Environment launched an initiative in 2016 to promote the energy efficiency of trucks (truck fuel efficiency) supported by a coalition of businesses including Carrefour, Alstom, Kingfisher, DBSchenker, Philips, Mercadona, Colruyt and Nestlé. Carrefour officially joined the T&E initiative in 2018 and co-signed a letter to a number of members of the European Commission to encourage the EU to propose energy efficiency standards for lorries. The 27 Member States will debate new CO2 emission standards when the Transport, telecommunications and energy council meet on 29 and 30 October.

Elimination of diesel scheduled for 2030

In France, Carrefour wrote on 22 October to François de Rugy, the Minister of Ecology, to promote an 'ambitious and restrictive' objective for the sale of zero emission lorries by 2025 in line with his desire to eliminate diesel from 2030. Carrefour also hopes that France will support an objective of reducing fuel consumption by lorries by 20% by 2025. A decrease that would enable businesses to save an average of €7,500 per lorry per year and reduce the end cost for consumers.

Carrefour is targeting a 70% reduction in its overall CO2 emissions by 2050. A particularly ambitious objective, which the Group aims to achieve through the efforts of its Logistics and CSR Departments. Carrefour has therefore acquired tools to optimise the management of goods transport by improving delivery rounds and palleting. The energy performance of lorries represents another lever for action thanks to the development of new low greenhouse gas emission technologies (engines that run on alternatives to fossil fuels, particularly biogas and hydrogen). Carrefour has already begun modernising its truck fleet by asking its carrier partners to invest in 200 lorries running on biomethane, a fuel that is less polluting but also ... less noisy.