Aircraft Specific Carbon Emission Calculations For Air Freight Transportation

Abstract

Commercial greenhouse gas emissions from aviation are proliferating, as is the concern among freight carriers to minimize their carbon footprint. From a corporate point of view, the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO) expects aircraft emissions to triple by 2050, with aviation accounting for 25% of the world's carbon budget . While ICAO and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) release annual overview statistics on the aviation industry and its related business economy, relatively few research data on fuel consumption, fuel quality and carbon emissions are available at global and regional levels, respectively. Policymakers and top decision-makers at transportation and logistics companies such as PostNL cannot determine the exact amount of carbon emissions associated with departing flights and needs a more robust model to determine marginal emissions due to cargo freight. To solve this problem, the research predominantly aims to answer the following research question: "How can PostNL be facilitated in calculating aircraft specific carbon emission factors, which can be used for accounting purposes, to promote sustainable purchasing and green market positioning?". Using empirical data from public, private-owned confidential data sets, and the PianoX aircraft emissions modeling, this research outlines a consistent and globally dispersed methodology for estimating CO2 emissions for air freight. An extensive review of the literature was carried out in the field of the emergence of "Sustainability Concept" and antecedent research in the Netherlands. This was followed by evaluating the current situation and the emergence of the supply chain processes. The study also describes and analyzes the operational process at PostNL and discusses the current methodology used at PostNL, i.e. DEFRA method for carbon emission calculation. Later, the flaws in the model were evaluated and addressed. Based on the review of the literature on antecedent research and the analysis of different carbon emissions calculation methodologies being used internationally in various institutions, a method was proposed for the calculation of Co2 emissions due to air freight. In order to measure commercial fuel consumption, many publicly available data sources were collected and incorporated with Piano X, an aircraft performance and design platform from Lissys Ltd. The data on the fuel-burning process and projected Co2 emissions were then compared and validated with the ICAO dataset and later implemented in the model proposed. This was followed by the creation of a conceptual simulation and optimization model build using VBA in Excel, which helps the company in making data-driven air transport procurement decisions taking into account tradeoffs between carbon emission, lead time, and cost to gain a strategic business advantage. Strategic goals were broken down into the priorities of the individual divisions at PostNL, expressed with the goal values of the lead time and the performance metrics for cargo costs. A graphical comparison was followed with the EU ETS datasets and the DEFRA datasets to compare and correlate the results obtained using the proposed methodology. The result also helps PostNL drive business sustainability in their partnerships while maintaining their flexibility and bargaining power with suppliers. The limitations and errors with the research were acknowledged in the areas of uncertainty due to the use of publically available information and the absence of the inclusion of dynamically changing time-dependent variables, including privately owned airline data. It was also concluded that logistics companies such as PostNL should always bear in mind that, often drastically, the logistics networks may shift. New ways of doing business, such as coopetition and better modeling, can help to increase effectiveness. Scenario planning and better business management approaches will have an advantage in improving the transportation and logistics industry to face the demands of the future and become ever more competitive and sustainable.