Redwood’s Fall 2024 Sustainability in Logistics Report: 97% of companies considering a digital solution to deliver on scope 3 decarbonization goals

Redwood’s Fall 2024 Sustainability in Logistics Report, informed by recent Gartner and Boston Consulting Group research, as well as Redwood’s recent Sustainability in Logistics event, has indicated significant momentum for companies’ investment in decarbonization and sustainability practices.

The Gartner Market Guide for Logistics Carbon Accounting and Management Solutions, featuring Redwood as a Representative Vendor, reported that: “The adoption of logistics carbon accounting and management solutions (LCAMSs), which enables evaluation of logistics greenhouse gas (GHG) sustainability performance, is accelerating. According to a study conducted by the Scope 3 Peer Group, 97% of responding organizations consider the use of a digital solution to help them deliver on their company’s Scope 3 decarbonization goals to be very or extremely important.”

At the Redwood Sustainability in Logistics event, UNVR’s Travis Vedral, Sr. Director Transportation Strategy, identified three core pillars for the transportation industry that can be acted upon today without significant tech investment. Those include minimizing miles, implementing efficient equipment, and targeted training of staff so they understand the role they play in turning the tide.

“For an effective sustainability plan to come to fruition, you have to start with an effective team centered around research, collaboration and education,” added Vedral. “UNVR’s research as well as market research indicates that tech investment is seen as a barrier to entry, especially in transportation. However, any company can act now without having to implement any new technology. The only thing they must be willing to invest in is internal assessment and research.”

In addition, results from the Boston Consulting Group’s fourth annual Carbon Emissions Survey, announced Sept. 17, revealed that decarbonization efforts bring companies $200M in annual net benefits. From the report:

“Climate leaders in our survey have realized significant value from their decarbonization efforts, including financial benefits equal to more than 7% of their revenues—for an average net benefit of $200 million a year. To achieve these financial benefits, leading companies are stepping beyond foundational actions, such as measuring and reporting emissions, and adopting more advanced actions—including using AI in their climate efforts and calculating product-level emissions—to support their decarbonization journeys.”

Redwood offers companies at any step in their sustainability journey a solution in Redwood Hyperion, which delivers logistics carbon visibility for all shipments moved with Redwood’s brokerage, or using shipment data sourced through Redwood’s proprietary integration platform, RedwoodConnect® which integrates directly with customers’ Transportation Management System (TMS), Supply Chain Management (SCM) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

"The evolution of decarbonization and sustainability efforts in 2024 is intertwined with Scope 3 regulations, creating new challenges and opportunities," added Nate Greensphan, Director of Product, Redwood. “While tech investment isn’t necessary to get started on a sustainability journey, it can certainly help to kickstart the process and is essential for companies that have more evolved plans. We are the only 4PL - or 3PL- provider included in the Market Guide offering these digital sustainability solutions to the transportation industry and shippers at large.”

As a leading 4PL provider, Redwood is uniquely positioned to assist shippers as they strive to meet these upcoming challenges. Redwood Hyperion automates detailed load-by-load emissions calculations, provides supply chain emissions metrics & analytics, and supports carbon neutral initiatives by facilitating carbon credit purchases toward verified projects.

Redwood Hyperion calculates carbon emissions through sourced shipment data including weight, distance, mode and vehicle type, which is then cleansed, normalized and calculated to freight-based emissions using GLEC-supplied emission factors for all mode types. Reports can be viewed or downloaded from Hyperion or the data can be extracted into any internal tool for further analysis or utilization.