Professional development special feature
Upskilling logistics professionals for a low carbon world
Intro: What new knowledge and skills do logistics managers need to develop and implement strategies to deal with climate change?
Body: The curricula of university courses and business training programmes on logistics have for many years contained modules on environmental aspects of the subject. They have provided a good grounding in the general principles of green logistics, but are unlikely to have prepared managers for the scale and complexity of the challenges now posed by climate change[1]. In a talk that I gave at the European Parliament last year, I outlined ten competences that managers need to deal with the biggest of these challenges - the decarbonisation of logistics.
Appreciating the gravity of the climate crisis: managers must take this crisis seriously enough to give it the priority it deserves, to communicate this to staff and to motivate them to take action. The recent politicisation of Net Zero and spread of misinformation on the subject is making this more difficult, ironically at a time when scientists are warning that the ‘window to avoid irreversible climate impacts is rapidly closing'[2]. Initiatives such as the Carbon Literacy Project[3] can help logistics professionals at all levels expand their knowledge of the threats posed by climate change and what can be done to mitigate them.
Understanding carbon emission processes: it is important to know where the emission ‘hot spots’ are in a logistics operation, indicating where decarbonisation efforts should be concentrated. Almost all these emissions come from the combustion of fossil fuel or, in the case of temperature-controlled logistics, the leakage of refrigerant gases. It helps therefore to have some knowledge of the physics and chemistry of energy use and cooling processes across a logistics system.
Auditing carbon emissions from logistics: major advances have been made over the past 15 years in the measurement, validation and reporting of these emissions to satisfy the increasing demand from businesses and governments for carbon transparency. To be able to set-up and manage a logistics carbon auditing scheme you need to be familiar with the various methodologies, emission factor databases, reporting standards, regulations, software tools and the varying data requirements of internal and external users. Fortunately, an emission measurement community exists, comprising organisations, most notably the Smart Freight Centre[4], companies and universities, which can provide the necessary support and training.
Deriving emission reduction targets: Once logistical activities have been carbon footprinted, the next step is to set targets for reducing the emissions. Much of the early target-setting by companies was crude, ill-informed and over-reliant on ‘top-down’ figures often ‘plucked from the air’[5]. This has gradually been replaced by ‘bottom-up’ analyses that indicate what levels of emission saving can realistically be achieved over varying time scales. This requires much greater analytical skill. External support is available from the Science Based Targets Initiative, established in 2015 to upgrade the setting of targets and align them more closely with the climate science. Around 11,000 companies now set or are committed to setting SBTi-accredited targets, just under 500 of them in transport and logistics sectors[6].
Anticipating and responding to government climate policy: there is a regular flow of public policy initiatives on climate change, some with particular relevance to logistics. They are a mixture of regulations, taxes, financial incentives, advisory schemes and investment programmes. Logistics managers must be able to assess the implications of these public interventions for their businesses. Monitoring the changing climate policy landscape can help them find ways of gaining competitive advantage by anticipating and responding early to new initiatives.
Knowing about logistics decarbonisation options: acquiring and updating this knowledge can be hard given the broad array of technical, operational, managerial and behavioural measures that can be deployed and differences in their applicability to specific types of logistics operation. Various frameworks[7] and checklists exist to help managers structure their thinking on the subject and avoid accidentally overlooking important methods of cutting emissions. Many of the options are efficiency-related, yielding economic as well as environmental benefits, and so are already subsumed within standard definitions of good business practice. This includes the ability to collaborate with other businesses. After all, deep decarbonisation will demand much greater logistics asset-sharing than at present.
Keeping abreast of advances in technology: this is also challenging, because of the rapid rate of carbon-reducing innovation in both logistics hardware and digital tools. Being able to identify, evaluate and exploit appropriate technologies can require some knowledge of the engineering aspects of vehicle design, intermodality, materials handling etc. As digitalisation will drive much logistics decarbonisation, awareness of potential carbon savings from the development of logistics software, online platforms, digital twinning, AI etc is now essential. Horizon scanning exercises, such as DHL’s Logistics Trend Radar[8], can keep managers stay up-to-date with new technologies, many of which offer environmental benefits.
Analysing the economics of decarbonisation: this involves conducting and/or commissioning studies of the relative carbon mitigation costs of different decarbonisation measures and being able to interpret the results. It also requires an appreciation of the costs, benefits and risks associated with practices such as carbon offsetting and the use of ‘book and claim’ systems in the procurement of low carbon fuels[9]. With the proliferation of carbon pricing and taxation schemes, which already cover 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions[10], logistics managers will have to adjust to a world in which carbon emissions are monetised.
Securing climate finance: the decarbonisation of logistics, particularly the switch to low carbon vehicles, buildings, equipment and fuels, will require substantial capital investment and rely heavily on external sources of funding. It is estimated[11], for example, that ‘installing the necessary charging infrastructure and transitioning the entire 500,000 UK HGV fleet to battery electric …would cost £100 billion’. Effective management of green investments on this scale will need higher levels of financial expertise.
Upgrading change management practices: meeting decarbonisation goals within the required time frames will necessitate radical changes to the planning and management of logistics processes. This will severely test companies’ change management capabilities. While logistics professionals generally relish working in a dynamic field subject to constant change, they face a major challenge in adapting their skill-sets and management styles to the demands of a low-carbon, climate-changed world.
[1] McKinnon, A.C. (2023) Logistics in the Climate Crisis. Focus, 25 (11)
[2] https://www.carbonbrief.org/tipping-points-window-to-avoid-irreversible-climate-impacts-is-rapidly-closing/
[3] https://carbonliteracy.com/
[4] https://www.smartfreightcentre.org
[5] McKinnon. A.C. and Piecyk, M.I. (2012) ‘Setting targets for reducing carbon emissions from logistics: current practice and guiding principles’ Carbon Management, 3 (6), 629-639.
[6] https://sciencebasedtargets.org/target-dashboard
[7] e.g. Alliance for Logistic Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ALICE) (2019) Roadmap towards Zero Emissions Logistics 2050. Brussels
[8] DHL Logistics Trend Radar 7.0: Insights for Shaping Tomorrow. https://www.dhl.com/gb-en/home/innovation-in-logistics/logistics-trend-radar.html
[9] Smith, D. and Lewis, A. (2023) Voluntary Market Based Measures Framework for Logistics Emissions Accounting and Reporting. Smart Freight Centre, Amsterdam.
[10] World Bank (2025) State and Trends of Carbon Pricing Dashboard. https://carbonpricingdashboard.worldbank.org/compliance/coverage
[11] Green Finance Initiative (2024) The Road to Net Zero: Decarbonising HGVs across Europe. https://www.greenfinanceinstitute.com/insights/the-road-to-net-zero-decarbonising-hgvs-across-europe/
Alan McKinnon FCILT
Kuehne Logistics University