Åkers Sweden AB - Outbound Logistics : Reduction of Environmental Effects

Abstract: Summary Environmental issues have become increasingly more important the last decade. It is of great importance to reduce emissions of green house gases (GHG) and the transport sector contributes to a large part of GHG emissions. The transport sector is the only sector that actually has increased the emissions during the last decade. This is a result of a growing economy and an increased demand of both carriages of passengers as well as freight transports. To reduce GHG emissions there is a need of smart, effective logistics solutions and new technologies. This thesis will contain a review of Åkers Sweden AB’s outbound logistics of rolls. The aim of this thesis is to identify environmental improvements without increasing further costs. A questionnaire for environmental evaluation of transport suppliers will also be developed in this thesis. Initial question formulations of this thesis are:   1. What are the environmental effects of the different modes of freight transports that are used in the case of Åkers Sweden AB? Are there any environmental improvements possible to establish without increasing costs? 2. How can distributors be evaluated regarding environmental effects?   Emissions and energy use of Åkers Sweden AB’s transports is calculated with the calculation model NTMcalc version 1.9.9. This model is developed by the Network for Transport and Environment (NTM). Examined modes of transport are road, rail and sea transports. Both theory and result in this thesis demonstrate that rail transports should be preferred to road transports from an environmental point of view. A disadvantage of rail transports is longer transport time in most cases. Longer transport time contribute to higher capital cost of goods during transit. Another disadvantage is that rail transports are limited between terminals or that customers have an industrial railway track. That leads to an increased need of reloading and handling costs. Potential alternative with less impact on the environment has been developed. This involves less impact than current alternative. The new alternative will decrease freight costs by 37 %. However, an increased capital cost by 84 % has been identified due to additional transportation time that is required for the alternative suggested. Transport costs are poorly connected to the real cost on the society. Governments throughout the world need to encourage transport buyers to choose more environmentally adapted alternatives by using management control measures. Also, a questionnaire for environmental evaluation of transport suppliers has been developed. It contains questions of the environmental organisation of the company, how they work with education of staff and reporting of environmental effects.