How Ricoh Europe uses BigMile to model transport modality shifts

By 2050, Ricoh’s entire value chain must be carbon-neutral.To achieve this, the Japanese multinational supplier ofprinting and IT solutions is using the so-called back-casting method, in which end goals are set first and then targets are set as milestones on the way to achieving the goals.

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Scope 3 targets

One of Ricoh’s targets is to reduce Scope 3 emissions under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (the most widely used protocol for calculating greenhouse gas emissions worldwide) by 40% by 2030. Scope 3 covers indirect CO2 emissions caused by the business activities of other organizations. Since Ricoh Europe outsources all its transport activities to logistics service providers, both for the physical distribution of end products and of spare parts, this target has a number of implications for the work of Stef Jacobs, Transport Supervisor at Ricoh Europe.

Modal shift

From the distribution centre in Bergen op Zoom (the Netherlands), all Ricoh shipments to and from destinations in EMEA are handled by external carriers. Jacobs is tasked with reducing CO2 emissions from both inbound and outbound transport by an average of 4% per year. “BigMile gives us insight into where the most emissions are and we take measures accordingly. We don’t look at regions, but we investigate the effects when we shift transport to another modality,” Jacobs explains.

As an example, he mentions the pilot project that is currently running. “Ricoh’s shipments to Russia are currently mainly transported by road. We are now investigating the possibility of transporting such cargo by rail instead. BigMile helps us by modelling the scenarios and the impact on CO2 emissions,” Jacobs says. “We have discovered that shifting modes has more effect on long distances. The transport to Germany, for example, also takes place by road, but the distance from the Netherlands to Germany is just too short to use a rail solution. It doesn’t pay off.”

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Fuel data

Because Ricoh can make the most impact in Scope 3, there is considerable pressure to reduce CO2 in the transport related activities. This is not easy, however, because Ricoh cannot exert any direct influence here. Jacobs: “We depend on external parties to supply us with data. We do receive some emission data or reports from various carriers, but these are static numbers, so we’re still largely basing our calculations on generic figures. We’re eager to start working with real fuel data.”