Coalition for the energy of the future:  11 major international companies join forces to accelerate

While the global transport and logistics community is currently dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, there's positive news surfacing now that the work to create sustainable sources of energy has not been curtailed. 

Indeed, a new development should give readers of Logistics Managment reason to rejoice. 

AWS, Carrefour Group, CMA CGM Group, Cluster Maritime Français, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Engie, Faurecia, Michelin, Schneider Electric, Total and Wärtsilä have formed an international coalition.

Nine concrete projects for developing energy solutions to accelerate the energy transition in transport and logistics.

At the Rencontres Économiques d’Aix-en-Provence, an economic forum attended by many organizations from around the world, 11 international groups have announced they have joined forces to form an international coalition open to new members. 

AWS, Carrefour Group, CMA CGM Group, Cluster Maritime Français, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Engie, Faurecia, Michelin, Schneider Electric, Total and Wärtsilä are the existing members.

The Coalition was launched in late 2019 during the French Maritime Economy Conference (Assises de l’Economie de la Mer) and has received the backing of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Coalition’s initial findings will be officially presented in January 2021 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress.

The Coalition aims to accelerate the development of energy sources and technologies to address the challenges posed by sustainable mobility in the transport and logistics industry by reducing emissions, fighting global warming and protecting biodiversity.

The 11 existing members are pooling their expertise in pursuit of three key goals to achieve genuine technological breakthroughs with tangible results by 2030:

Unlock a more extensive portfolio of clean energy sources; lower energy consumption per kilometer-equivalent of goods transported; and eliminate a substantial proportion of emissions linked to transport and logistics.

 Over the past few months, the Coalition has established nine working groups with several dozen participants to devise nine concrete projects that will help shape the energy sources of the future:

*Develop green hydrogen procurement solutions for the transport sector
*Develop biofuels for the various modes of transport
*Expand the use of biogas and synthetic gases in transport,
*Replace fossil fuels with green energy across the supply chain
*Launch zero-emission vehicle pilot projects by the end of 2021
*Create a digital door-to-door route planning system that calculates the option with the lowest environmental impact,
*Optimize the operational management and loading to step up the energy efficiency of each ton carried,
*Make multimodal platforms more environmentally friendly for logistics applications,
Consolidate methods used to measure the impact of energy transition projects in transport and logistics.

“At AWS, we are committed to running our business in the most environmentally friendly way possible, and we aim to achieve 100% renewable energy use across Amazon by 2025 on the path to net zero carbon by 2040,” said Julien GROUES, Managing Director of AWS in France. “Beyond our own commitment, we are also convinced that the power of AWS is an asset for freight and logistics companies to accelerate research and innovation in renewable energy and make informed decisions based on the analysis of large data sets.”

Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Carrefour Group, added that the food transition for all, which has become Carrefour's “raison d'être,” will not happen without an energy transition. 

“We are a committed player and have set ambitious objectives to fight global warming, through the promotion of cleaner means of transportation, and through our aspiration to build a food distribution model that, from producer to end consumer, is environmentally friendly,” he said. 

Patrick Koller, Chief Executive Officer of Faurecia,concluded by noting that his company is particularly committed to reach carbon neutrality for it facilities by 2025 with a global program of savings and of decarbonated energy use. 

“With strong expertise in hydrogen technology and materials, we will play our full part within the Coalition to make the energy transition for transport a reality,” he said. “This will require new technological solutions, which will emerge more quickly through the creation of open ecosystems and knowledge sharing.”