Climate change has been caused by business decisions – and one of the reasons governments haven’t been able to do anything about it is because, most often, it is not a government issue.
And business decisions are quite hard to make, says Karl Feilder, founder of Neutral Fuels. “We have to make business decisions to change, that customers don’t necessarily notice – that doesn’t impact them.”
Climate change is a reality, and a very serious problem, he says, and we have to do something about it now, without waiting for governments to take the lead.
Feilder worked with DHL in 2006, helping the company – which then had 200 000 trucks, 13 500 buildings and 423 aircraft – to reduce its carbon footprint. “The challenge was immense. DHL is a company that moves things around the world, using fossil fuels.
“My advice then, which is the same as it is to any company today, was to assess, reduce, and replace.”
So DHL did a carbon footprint assessment at the end 2006, and found it used 33-million tons of CO2 emissions per year – about the same as 46 counties put together.
But the company took concerted action to reduce those emissions, and has succeeded in bringing that number down by 5% each year.
The carbon reduction initiative was led by the CEO, which was a large part of its success, Feilder points out.
Worldwide, supply chains are a big contributor to the carbon emission problem, he explains.
Road passenger vehicles account for about 45,1% of emissions, and there are numerous initiatives underway to address these. Solutions include things like electric cars, biofuels, hydrogen fuel cars and more.
Road freight accounts for 29,4% of emission, aviation for 11,6% and shipping for 10,6% – but there are few solutions being flighted for these transport types.
“In fact the only solution being used requires used cooking oil,” Feilder explains. Indeed, the European Union has cottoned on to this biofuel and is currently the main importer of used cooking oil.
It may seem ironic that expensive and carbon-intensive transportation is used to bring used cooking oil into Europe, which underscores the need for more local biofuel production in other countries.
“In most countries outside of the US and Europe, there is no biofuel production,” Feilder says. “This is despite the fact that a lifecycle analysis of locally-produced biofuels could result in significant carbon reduction.”
Neutral Fuels has been working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for 11 years, and it has some interesting data to share.
“If you eat MacDonalds here, it is delivered in a truck running 100% biofuel,” he says. “And the customer doesn’t know that – they go to the same outlet and eat the same food as always. But they are contributing to carbon emissions.”
The company has recently started a marine section, and recently started a bunkering solution to provide biofuel to shipping in the UAE.
“In the city centre, we now move 14% of the Dubai school bus fleet using biofuels, which means there are less airborne emissions.”
There are many good reasons to use biofuel instead of diesel, Feilder says. “First and foremost it allows you immediately reduce carbon emissions. And it’s important that we do this immediately instead of talking about it as we have for the last 30 years.
“You don’t have to modify diesel engines at all to use biofuel; there is no loss in fuel efficiency; it is a net-zero fuel; and you can improve engine life and performance.”
He points out that the EU has mandated that 7% of all diesel must be biodiesel. “Since 2003, the EU has been buying whatever it can to convert it to biodiesel.
“But we have to realise that these decisions should be about local solutions to local problems. I believe each city of 1-million people or more should have its own biofuel facility. It is our raw material and we should be using it solve our own local problems.”