Norfolk Southern Corporation today announced the launch of a next generation carbon calculator to support customer efforts to account, measure and mitigate carbon emissions in their supply chain decisions. Rail is the most efficient way to transport freight across the landscape. Every day, Norfolk Southern helps to deliver the low carbon economy. According to the most recent CDP report, for the average company, supply chain emissions are 11.4 times higher than operational emissions. With a sample size of over 7 million shipments, the online calculator is built on an algorithm that produces results based on actual data to strengthen and improve efficiency estimates, giving customers the ability to include emissions into their transportation decisions.
Norfolk Southern was first in the rail industry to create a carbon calculator in 2008. In an industry-leading approach, this new calculator improves the accuracy of carbon estimates by capturing the entire cycle of fuel usage. Direct fuel consumption from locomotives is applied to every rail car based on weight and distance traveled. Additional fuel accounted for includes yard and local operations, equipment repositioning, and fuel expended while handling containers in intermodal operations. The innovative process generates a rail fuel efficiency factor for 18 rail car types and 30 commodities plus intermodal.
This next generation calculator was designed with the entire transportation industry in mind. Norfolk Southern worked with logistic partners to ensure the calculations drawn between shipping via truck and rail sectors were accurate. With 57% of all freight considered flexible freight, this calculator focuses on incorporating carbon into the decision framework of shippers to encourage the shipper to choose the most efficient and least carbon intensive mode of transportation.
Users enter the type of commodity they want to transport, shipment weight and frequency, and then choose from over 75,000 origins and destinations in the U.S. The calculator provides data on estimated and avoided emissions, carbon dollars saved, highway miles avoided, trucks and cars taken off the road, and other carbon equivalents.
-via Press Release