Woodland Group starts running fleet on HVO

In its annual sustainable supply chain report, the group said in 2022 100% of its fleet was running on diesel, but the decision last year to implement the drop-in bio-diesel was providing an estimated saving of 2,000 metric tonnes of CO2 every year.

The report said it was becoming clear that a blended approach to achieving zero carbon was the future: “It’s no secret that currently there is no scalable, durable, and accessible solution available to transition the global road freight sector to a low carbon and sustainable future,” it said.

“However, this won’t be the case forever. There are a number of solutions on the horizon that could allow this to be achieved. Hydrogen, battery powered vehicles and bio-fuels are all potential solutions that are beginning to or have already entered the market and could offer a pathway to net zero.”

It added that in 2023 it also carried out a battery electric HGV trial at its Doncaster depot: “The aim here was to better understand the opportunities and limitations of this technology in a real-world scenario.

“The outcomes have been extremely insightful and have offered an honest look at how this technology could be best utilized within our fleet in the future.”

Woodland Group also said it had optimised transportation efficiency through the use of longer semi-trailers (LSTs).

“By utilizing LSTs, we can reduce the number of journeys required to transport the same volume of goods,” it explained.

“This translates to a significant reduction in emissions: we estimate a potential reduction of up to 600 journeys per year, leading to a corresponding decrease in emissions associated with each trip’s impact wherever possible.”

The company has ambitions to transition its vehicle fleet to net zero emissions by 2050 and switch to renewable energy by 2023 across all its facilities.

The report can be accessed here: https://tinyurl.com/2depckd8