Reducing emissions from transport
Most of our products are transported by road. Vehicles use road fuels and this releases CO2, which contributes to climate change. There is also growing concern about 'food miles' - the distance food and beverages travel form farm or manufacturing site to retailers and ultimately consumers. There are other more localised issues such as the impact of exhaust emissions on air quality along with traffic congestion.
We own a small fleet of distribution vehicles, which are mainly used for smaller deliveries to local shops and newsagents. We also use haulage companies such as Eddie Stobart Ltd to transport bulk deliveries to supermarkets and other large customers.
- Transportation accounted for over 11% of our carbon footprint in 2010.
We've been working to reduce emissions from both our own fleet and our industry partners.
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We are also expanding backhauling with customers and suppliers in Great Britain, an arrangement by which customers or suppliers use empty vehicles on a return journey to collect or move product. During 2010 8,916 deliveries, equalling 597,534 kms or 1.4% of our mileage travelled, used otherwise empty customer or supplier vehicles.
Reducing our own emissions
We're reducing the carbon footprint of our own vehicles through better journey planning and by using smaller vehicles for smaller loads. We're also reducing harmful exhaust emissions by using a special exhaust gas treatment system known as Selective Catalytic Reduction.
We have also conducted trials into the use of hybrid and energy-efficient vehicles within our distribution and sales fleets.
- For our car fleet we have specified low emission vehicles and use Vauxhall Astra ecoFLEX, which delivers carbon emissions of below 120g per kilometre
- We are currently running hybrid forklift trucks at our Milton Keynes site. These forklifts are 20% more efficient than those driven by conventional means.
- From 2010 onwards all replacement trucks were specified to be EEV (Energy Efficient Vehicle) status which resulted in lower exhaust emissions
In May 2010 Coca-Cola Enterprises was the first to trial a dedicated bio-gas heavy goods truck in the UK logistics sector. The Iveco Stralis 21 tonne distribution vehicle runs on compressed bio-gas. The truck works in our local distribution fleet in and around London and uses bio-gas from a local landfill site. Bio-gas has a much lower carbon-intensity than diesel and we expect the truck to generate carbon savings of around 65% compared to conventional diesel.
Rail Freight
We're working with Tesco and Eddie Stobart Ltd on a dedicated rail freight route between Stobart's distribution centre in Livingston and the Daventry International Rail Freight terminal.
Under this partnership, goods on each south-bound journey are made up of products from Coca-Cola Enterprises' East Kilbride manufacturing site, ready for distribution to our Northampton distribution centre.
- In total, the freight train service reduced CCE's carbon footprint by 173 tonnes in 2010, saving 262,000 road miles
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