How Blue Dart Is Tackling Emissions In Urban Logistics

For a delivery company, speed is an essential part of its business as they built on speed and reliability, lowering emissions is not an easy task for them. However, it can be managed by careful planning, which determines success. At Blue Dart, sustainability choices are influenced by both environmental objectives and operational limitations. In an interview with Nitin Varkey, Chief of Staff, Blue Dart, following the launch of their whitepaper Green Logistics as a Competitive Advantage: Why Sustainability Will Decide Market Leaders by 2023, he discussed the importance of planning and how the company manages EV deployment based on route requirements.

Reducing emissions is a difficult undertaking for a business that was founded on speed and dependability. Sustainability choices at Blue Dart Express are influenced by both environmental objectives and operational limitations. Following the release of their whitepaper, Green Logistics as a Competitive Advantage: Why Sustainability Will Decide Market Leaders by 2023, Nitin Varkey, Chief of Staff at Blue Dart, spoke about the significance of planning and how the company handles EV deployment based on route requirements.

He said the company’s early experience with electric vehicles made one thing clear: success depends on planning, not scale. Electric vehicles, he explained, work best on predictable routes — short distances, frequent stops, manageable payloads. Urban deliveries fit that profile. Long or variable routes do not. As a result, EVs are being deployed selectively, not across the board.

The Emission Cause
That approach reflects a broader reality in express logistics. The largest share of Blue Dart’s emissions does not come from the road network at all, but from the air. Aircraft operations, Varkey said, remain the most carbon-intensive part of a time-definite delivery system. Sustainable Aviation Fuel is universally recognised as the permanent solution, although its commercial production in India is still quite far. As long as this situation continues, it will be hard to make any significant reductions in aviation emissions.

Fuel consumption is the next big challenge on the ground. Blue Dart is tackling it through methods such as route optimisation, alternative-fuel vehicles and automation. Varkey mentioned that automation is a common topic in relation to speed, but its influence on sustainability is not visible and is thus less important. Better route planning cuts down unnecessary kilometres. Automated customer communication reduces failed deliveries and repeat trips. Inside facilities, smarter inventory and energy systems help lower electricity use without disrupting operations.

The shift has required investment, and not all of it pays off immediately. Varkey acknowledged that sustainability is often viewed as a cost in logistics, a sector driven by margins and timelines. Internally, acceptance improved when sustainability was framed as a long-term business issue — linked to customer expectations, regulatory readiness and resilience — rather than as a compliance exercise.

As delivery volumes rise each year, the company's focus has been on reducing emissions per shipment, rather than assuming total emissions can fall overnight. The company has introduced electric vehicles into parts of its fleet, tested electric drones for last-mile deliveries in limited urban pockets, and aligned new large facilities with green building guidelines. Tree plantation commitments form part of this wider effort, though Varkey stressed that operational efficiency remains the core lever.

Measured Electrification
Last-mile delivery in dense cities brings its own complications. According to Varkey, decisions on EV deployment are taken only after assessing range limits, payload needs and route suitability. This, he said, has helped avoid disruptions and reinforced the idea that electrification needs to be tailored, not rushed.

Measuring impact has become equally important. Varkey explained how Blue Dart tracks emissions across its network in line with the GHG Protocol and reports them through statutory disclosures. As per the company, the data is also used to offer customers clearer visibility into the emissions linked to their shipments, a demand that has grown as corporate clients face their own climate commitments.

Customer expectations, he observed, are changing. Sustainability clauses are now common in logistics tenders, particularly from global brands. In response, the company has developed services that allow customers to reduce emissions within the logistics chain itself, especially in first- and last-mile operations.

Sustainability requirements extend beyond Blue Dart’s own operations. As per the company, vendors are expected to comply with environmental and ethical standards set out in a supplier code of conduct, reflecting the company’s attempt to apply similar expectations across its value chain.

As far as aviation is concerned, the sector remains a mammoth problem to solve. There should be a fuel compatible with existing systems; otherwise, without viable low-carbon fuel options, emissions from air operations will be difficult to bring down quickly. Infrastructure gaps add to the challenge. Still, Varkey pointed to policy momentum and improving transport frameworks as signals that conditions for greener logistics may gradually improve.

For the sector as a whole, he said meaningful progress will depend less on single solutions and more on steady gains — cleaner vehicles, alternative fuels where possible, and better use of data to cut waste and inefficiency.