Environment
The impact of TNT’s operational activities on the environment is one of the key drivers for its corporate responsibility strategy.
TNT seeks to limit its impact with respect to the following:
- climate change by emitting greenhouse gases,
- human health by exposure to noise and air pollution, and
- the use of natural resources by operational activities.
These environmental impacts are monitored closely through TNT’s environmental management system. As a transport company dependent on fossil fuels to power the air and road fleet, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been identified as TNT’s most significant environmental impact.
Besides its own CO2 footprint, TNT also acknowledges responsibility for the emissions from transport activities that are contracted out and reports on the CO2 emissions from these subcontracted operations as related to its own CO2 footprint. The TNT CO2 footprint also includes CO2 emissions from business travel by air and company cars.
The emission of CO2 into the atmosphere contributes to climate change and TNT recognizes the risks that climate change has on the sustainability of its operations and the financial impact the Group could face in the future. These include:
- regulatory risks (Emission Trading Scheme, city accessibility),
- physical risks (infrastructure),
- reputational risks (stakeholders and customers), and
- supply chain risks (fuel prices).
Many of TNT’s stakeholders share this concern, as is confirmed through stakeholder dialogues. Stakeholders feel that TNT should aim to reduce CO2 emissions through the efficient use of energy and expect the company to seek out alternative means of transport as the main focus areas for its environmental management.
TNT listens to its stakeholders and aims to meet the expectations of investors, employees, suppliers and customers to manage regulatory risks, while at the same time demonstrating a tangible reduction in CO2 emissions.
ISO 14001 certification
Implementing and adhering to TNT’s environmental management system is the basis for managing environmental performance. TNT has adopted the international standard ISO 14001 for this purpose. This standard provides a framework for identifying and managing the environmental risks and their impact, and for continuously and systematically improving environmental performance.
During 2008, the mail division retained all existing ISO 14001 certificates. Additionally, EMN Netherlands, EMN UK, and the main part of EMN Italy received the ISO 14001 certificate.
Within Express, all entities are certified with the exception of the major acquisitions, Cambodia, Cyprus, Fiji, Kenya and TG Plus in Spain. Action plans have been developed and agreed for all these Express entities that do not have an ISO 14001 certificate.
TNT ’s CO2 footprint
Since 2007, TNT has been reporting carbon emissions in accordance with the accounting and reporting standards defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol). The GHG Protocol is a multi-stakeholder partnership of businesses, NGOs, governments and others convened by the World Resources Institute (WRI ) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD ). The GHG Protocol recognises three types of emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3), which are generated by different sources:
- Scope 1 covers all direct emissions generated by sources that are owned or controlled by the company, such as operational vehicles, aviation and heating,
- Scope 2 includes all emissions from the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company, and
- Scope 3 refers to indirect emissions that are a consequence of the company’s activities but occur from sources not owned or controlled by the company.
CO2 footprint subcontractor emissions
TNT has developed a separate model to estimate the CO2 emissions generated by subcontracted operations. The use of primary indicators (fuel consumption) is the most accurate way of calculating CO2 emissions. However, calculations based on primary indicators are not possible given that actual fuel consumption of subcontractors is not available to TNT . TNT therefore uses various proxy indicators that, using models, can be translated into estimated CO2 emissions. Depending on data availability, secondary indicators (road kilometres driven / kilometres flown) or cost indicators (subcontractor cost) are used. To translate subcontractor costs into fuel consumption, cost distributions within two operational entities (Express Road Network and Belgium) were used as a baseline.