Ashish Joshi on the short term actions needed to achieve net zero

Ahead of the Transport Transition Summit, taking place on the 11 & 12 May, Climate Action caught up with Ashish Joshi, Supply Chain Transformation at Unilever, to discuss the short term actions needed to achieve net zero and what Unilever is doing to mitigate and offset freight emissions.

You're speaking as part of our Transition Month within The Roadmap to COP26. What does COP mean for the transport industry, what do you need from COP and what does a successful COP look like for you?

According to the Mission Possible report, Transport contributes ~17% of total emissions across the globe. We need some decisive action on transition from Diesel powered to zero emission transport solutions. Some good progress has been made in the passenger cars and public transport systems over the last 5 years, Governments now must shift the focus to Zero emissions Trucking.

Companies must also play their part. Logistics and Distribution make up about 15% of Unilever’s greenhouse gas footprint. At Unilever we have cut our logistics carbon emissions by 40% against a 2010 baseline. And the goal is to be carbon neutral before 2039. This absolutely must be the decade of action.

COP is a starting line not a finish line to reach a net-zero future by 2050. But, short-term action is just as important as long term net-zero ambitions. In your industry what do you see as the most important short-term measures and steps needed to get on track to net-zero in the long term?

Short-terms targets are incredibly important. For us to deliver the Paris Agreement, we must cut around half of the world’s global emissions in this decade based on the science.

Making Bio-fuels available widely can be a good strategy in the interim, for the next 3-10 years, while the Electric charging / Hydrogen refuelling infrastructure is built to move towards Zero Emission transportation in the long-term.

In reaching net-zero we must take action this decade, but there are many structural, financial, and policy barriers. Where do you see the greatest friction currently, and how can crosssector collaboration and public-private partnership help to overcome these barriers?

The biggest challenge is the Total Cost of Operations (TCO) of Zero Emissions (ZE) trucking solutions as compared to Diesel. In addition to grants and subsidies we need more innovative ways of financing the infrastructure development at scale as well as supporting fleet owners with the purchase of ZE trucks.

Unilever is one of the biggest freight charterers on the planet and therefore responsible for a significant amount of emissions. Yet Unilever is also doing a huge amount to mitigate and offset these emissions. What excites you most about your decarbonisation activities and where do you see the greatest untapped opportunity currently?

Our priority is to reduce our emissions in absolute terms. We are committed to reducing as much as possible the GHGs related to our value chain.

We will only look to engaging offsets for our residual emissions that can’t be eliminated as we get closer to our 2039 Net Zero Commitment. We have been measuring our emissions since 2011 and have reduced by 40% since then. This has been achieved through sharp focus on reducing kilometres travelled through network redesign and improving load-fill of trucks.

We have also increased the usage of intermodal solutions in our long-haul transportation. We have been moving to alternate fuels eg CNG and RNG and will accelerate this further in coming months.

The most exciting as well as challenging activity is to decarbonize logistics while balancing service and cost performance across the supply chain.

Which other sectors and companies can Unilever learn from in terms of decarbonisation strategies, what lessons can you take from these sectors and what learnings can you share in return?

There are many others who are making inspiring progress.

We endorse and promote several incredibly helpful tools – eg The Exponential Roadmap Initiative. This has a 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders group that we are a part of, and has created very clear, simple tools and roadmaps that are open for all to access and use.

There is also Exponential Roadmap Initiative’s climate hub for small to medium sized business (SME Climate Hub).

We’re aware that not every company is going to have the resources that we do at Unilever to start this shift; – this is a great way for everyone to have access to the tools needed to get on a net zero path. We’ve also made our Climate Transition Action Plan available on our website that can be used as a source of information. 

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Ashish Joshi is speaking at the Transport Transition Summit this May! Register now to connect with a growing network of over 1,500 transport, energy and policy professionals mapping the next phase of the transport transition.