Energy efficiency equals cost efficiency: engaging sectoral organisations as champions and messengers to reduce energy use in freight transport

Johan Beukema, Buck Consultants International, The Netherlands
Jessica Dirks, SenterNovem, The Netherlands

Keywords

transport, energy, efficiency, shippers, benchmarking, monitoring, best practices, EU, sectoral organisation, supply-chain, logistics, transport prevention

Abstract

Recently, the EU project INTERACTION has started. INTERACTION stands for INternational Transport and Energy Reduction ACTION. The main objectives of the project are:

to promote the reduction of energy use in freight transport via industry associations;
to identify best practice approaches in different countries and exchange information among the different participating countries;
to realise a sustainable focus on energy reduction in freight transportation on the EU level by the creation of a strong network of stakeholders in this field throughout the EU and different industries.

Recent experiences in different countries (e.g. the sectoral approach in the Transport Reduction Programme in The Netherlands in 2005) show that a sectoral approach towards energy use reduction in freight transport is very successful. Actual practice has shown that – on average – reduction potentials of 15 % exist. INTERACTION will directly work on energy use reduction potential identification and implementation in 3 sectors of industry per country and 5 active companies per sector. In total 6 countries are involved (The Netherlands, Finland, Greece, Germany, Czech Republic, Bulgaria as well as one region: the Baltic Sea area), consequently 90 companies will be directly involved.

The project will be concluded in December 2008. Subjects that are already available to be published and disseminated are:

The set-up of INTERACTION;
Types of efficiency measures and expected impacts;
The common framework, offering guidance on engaging sectoral organisations and companies and the implementation process.

Case studies from The Netherlands (2005 and 2006), which sketch the results of a number of Dutch companies that have already taken action to reduce energy use in freight transport in practice.