Carbon intensity

Carbon intensity measures how polluting a product or service is.

The more CO₂e a product or service emits – per unit – the higher its carbon intensity.

Measuring logistics carbon intensity

Logistics carbon intensity is measured in gCO₂e / tkm.

That’s a mouthful, let’s unpack it:

gCO₂e means: how many grams of CO₂e are emitted
t means: for each tonne transported
km means: for each kilometre travelled

carbon-intensity

Flight, maritime, road, and rail freight

Carbon intensity varies significantly depending on the transport method used. For example flights’ carbon intensity ranges between 560 and 1,390 gCO₂e / tkm, while maritime shipments range between 6 and 50 gCO₂e / tkm.

Even within the same transport method category, carbon intensity can vary significantly. For example for container ships there’s a few things to consider:

The age of the ship
The size of the ship
The type of engine it uses
The type of fuel it uses

Data from the Fourth IMO GHG Study 2020 shows for example that within the same bulk carrier category the carbon intensity can range between 2.2 and 37.6 gCO₂e / tkm.

intensities-by-method

Visualising carbon intensity

In this example, a company wants to nudge customers in using more EVs for shipping goods. To achieve this they want to show each customer’s carbon intensity, compared to the average.

Carbon intensity ranges between 0 and 97 gCO₂ / tkm (based on their customers’ aggregate data). The average is 42 gCO₂ / tkm.

visualise-carbon-intensity

In this other example, a company allows users to ship their goods with many transport methods, ranging from maritime to air freight.

They want to nudge their users to become sustainability leaders and move them away from excessively using air freight, which has a high carbon intensity.

Again, using aggregate data they have defined 3 bands:

Leader, below 200 gCO₂ / tkm
Average, between 200 and 400 gCO₂ / tkm
Too much air freight, above 400 gCO₂ / tkm

average-carbon-intensity