NYK and Yusen Logistics have just launched a blockchain-based digital platform that tracks reductions in GHG emissions.
Japanese shipping firm Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, or NYK Line, has teamed up with Yusen Logistics Co., Ltd. to launch a blockchain-based digital platform. The former will track and certify the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in global supply chains. This new platform is a product of collaboration with 123Carbon B.V, decarbonization technology startup that came from the Netherlands in relation to trying to find an answer to one of the biggest problems; this being Scope 3 emissions that are the indirect emissions caused by value chain production and supply within a company.
Track and Verify Emission Reduction of GHGs
A new platform to the reductions of greenhouse gases across the different transport modes, which include air, land, and sea, gives them a trackable and verifiable method. This reduction data obtained is accurate and tamper-proof since there is blockchain technology that exists. The third-party organizations that will certify the reduction will issue the same to the customers that use the platform.
The platform is used for businesses so that they can enhance their knowledge regarding the carbon footprints being reduced. It shows how a business can even look at operations and what it would leave in an environment. The project will contribute to NYK’s and Yusen Logistics’ bigger decarbonization strategy; therefore, it would reduce the carbon footprint of the whole world and gain momentum in a more sustainable way in which logistics operations could be run in the future.
How It Works
The process behind the platform is streamlined and exhaustive. NYK produces the GHG-emission reduction through the use of biofuels within its business for bulk shipping. These are measured and upon third-party validation, certificates are provided to Yusen Logistics. In this manner, Yusen Logistics reduces by itself from its multi ocean shipping partners, which are its airline partners, as well as NYK. The company offsets by using alternative fuels for trucking fleets in some countries on its own.
All this emission-related data is compiled in the blockchain-based system that enables customers to track and trace sources and carbon footprint of their reduction of GHG. Since all the steps are in real-time transparent with blockchain, businesses can make an informed choice and validate claims of reduction of carbon footprint.
Carbon Management One Stop Shop
There is, as mentioned, a totally new platform coming on stream later in the year. This one-stop-shop will supply firms under pressure to make cuts within their supply chain-with an urgent need, from one point: namely that same point from which all carbon reduction activity can be monitored, and managed through. And making that process easier for business on its pathway to sustainability comes at an advantage.
Both NYK and Yusen Logistics have agreed to good decarbonization. NYK has ambitions to achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050, and the transition will be supported by its supply of biofuel to different kinds of vessels. Meanwhile, Yusen Logistics has set a commitment to reduce its GHG emissions by 2030 to 45%. It reduces to the level where it provides Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by creating Scope 3 with cooperation of a partner.
Another crucial area that must be covered to reduce emissions globally is Scope 3. They are emissions of activities that a reporting organization has no control over such as supply chains. Thus, Scope 3 might be difficult to trace because they include not only up-stream products but down-stream products too. This challenge is met by the NYK-Yusen Logistics platform with a single system where all members of the supply chain can track emissions-from the supplier right through to the end customer. It enables a cooperative approach where companies are able to monitor the decrease in emissions and validate the sustainability claims made.
The increase in carbon-footprint pressure placed on logistics companies is far more important for the industry now. As the demands from regulators and investors to have transparency and accountability for business corporate behavior have increased, so have those realizing there’s much more to doing things sustainably in a business than just being a ‘sound’ businessperson with an environmental conscience toward very imperative grounds for the doing of a business. The more and more such solutions will critically be important going forward and providing companies the power to track and administer their data, especially their emissions effectively.
International Outreach and Industry Transformation
Reconciliation within the logistics sector with an amount reduction of GHG emissions fits well within the general line towards de-carbonization at an industry level. This aspect makes the logistics sector central in the fight against global climatic change, given transport remains one of the industry sources that emit the largest emissions worldwide. The launching NYK-Yusen Logistics platform marks a great progress that shows how to achieve supporting the change.
Through the technology of blockchain, NYK and Yusen Logistics have done such reduction information about GHG transparency to customers and therefore established a new standard of sustainability in logistics. This is sure to benefit the companies concerning their reduction goals but also doing this will aid the whole world in achieving its final milestone of bringing down carbon emission and winning against climate change.
Conclusion
This step by NYK and Yusen Logistics toward reducing its carbon footprint in the logistics industry is a very crucial move since it will empower the firm to track carbon footprints through better tracking systems. Hence, it will boost their capabilities for sustainability monitoring and verification of emission cuts. The new technology will advantage companies that are increasingly growing under pressure from emissions within their supply chains.
It would be something that sets the future of global supply chains in the right direction and helps steer the world’s economy in a more sustainable direction as logistics continues on its own path to decarbonize.
Source: NYK and Yusen Logistics press release, 2024