The transportation industry has long been marked by high emissions and relatively low sustainability credentials. With extensive links to the fossil fuel industry, it can be difficult at times to imagine a truly sustainable future that moves away from the currently dominant practices and technologies.
There are, however, a number of promising advances – from changes in policy to changing consumer awareness, here’s where we reckon the industry is headed.
Changes in policy
Many people see policy changes as the most important way of analysing sustainability trends, especially in the logistics industry. Given the political instability at the moment across most of Europe, these regulatory frameworks are constantly changing at a relatively quick rate.
That being said, the general trend, regardless of which party has been in power, has been a turn towards a net zero future. This will require a complete transition away from emission-intensive logistics technologies – the only unknown is what kind of timeline this transition will occur over.
Warehouse innovations
Another promising area of development that points towards a more sustainable future lies in the area of warehouse innovation. Perhaps most importantly, the widespread adoption of automated loading systems developed by companies such as Joloda Hydraroll has had an immense transformative effect on how efficient loading processes are.
This has a reductive effect on the emissions associated with these stages of the logistics process, both by eliminating the need for forklift trucks and by reducing the amount of damaged goods in the loading process.
Vehicle innovations
Arguably the main barrier to sustainability in the transportation industry is how quickly we’re able to move away from internal combustion engines that are powered by fossil fuels. While this transition won’t be a quick one, we are seeing a range of impressive technological innovations.
For example, EVs – which were hardly even a potentially viable solution just a decade ago – are now being used by a number of services for their last-mile deliveries. We’ll likely see these kinds of technologies implemented into other parts of the logistics process, especially as battery technologies improve and become increasingly accessible.
Consumer preferences
Lastly, it’s important to consider how a change in consumer preferences could force the logistics industry to adapt as time goes by. With more and more people focusing on the emissions that are associated with their purchasing and travel decisions, businesses that neglect improving their sustainability quotas can expect to see a decrease in how positively their brand is perceived.
More than that, just focusing on adopting sustainable practices isn’t sufficient – businesses also need to ensure that they clearly communicate those changes to their clients, to integrate it into their overall brand image.
If we’ve learned anything from what we’ve seen over the past few decades, it’s that the transition towards a sustainable future will not be linear. There will be periods of regression as well as periods of progress, but the overall trend does seem to be towards one of complete sustainability. In the end, this will be a practical necessity – the alternative, that we continue to use fossil fuels in the long run, is quite literally impossible.
