Eleven international companies including Amazon Web Services (AWS) have joined forces to accelerate the energy transition in transport and logistics.
 
AWS, Carrefour Group, CMA CGM Group, Cluster Maritime Français, Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, Engie, Faurecia, Michelin, Schneider Electric, Total and Wärtsilä have formed an international coalition. They will work on nine concrete projects to accelerate the energy transition 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. We are delighted to put our technological expertise at the service of the coalition.”
 
At this month’s Rencontres Économiques d’Aix-en-Provence, an economic forum attended by many organisations from around the world, the 11 international groups announced they had joined forces to form an international coalition open to new members.
 
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 kilometre-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 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;
• Optimise the operational management and loading to step up the energy efficiency of each ton carried;
• Make multimodal platforms more environmentally friendly for logistics applications; and
• Consolidate methods used to measure the impact of energy transition projects in transport and logistics.

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

“At Schneider Electric, our commitment is to be the partner of our customers in their journeys towards sustainability and become carbon positive ourselves,” said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO of Schneider Electric. “We are proud to be part of the coalition for the energy of the future, contributing to the energy transition in transportation and logistics thanks to our expertise in energy and digital automation.”

Patrick Pouyanna, CEO of Total, added: “Total shares the ambition to get to net-zero emissions by 2050, together with society, for its global business across its production and energy products used by its customers. By joining the coalition for the energy of the future alongside major partners, we intend to support and accelerate the joint development of tangible energy, therefore directly contributing to the reduction of carbon intensity of the transportation and logistics sectors.”