Interview – Geopost’s Jean-Claude Sonet on sustainability, decarbonisation and industry collaboration

Jean-Claude Sonet, Geopost’s EVP for Marketing, Communication and Sustainability, discusses in this interview with CEP-Research the group’s new Carbon Calculator, their sustainability targets and progress, plans to decarbonise transportation and deliveries, and how the CEP industry can collaborate on reporting standards and transparency.

The interview took place earlier this month at DELIVER Europe 2023 in Amsterdam. (The interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.)

What is your new carbon calculator and who is it for?

The carbon calculator is a brand-new digital tool we just launched. This tool aims at measuring and reporting the CO2 emissions of the parcels that we operate. The tool is based on our track & trace system. For every single scan during the parcel journey, we allocate the CO2 emissions that are related to this very specific part of the journey. So we can report per parcel but globally as well.

It helps us of course to measure our own emissions but it's mainly designed for our customers. This is because shippers now want to know what the carbon performance of their carriers is. They can access online or via monthly reports the detailed emissions of their parcels that are operated by Geopost. We have started to deploy this tool in 10 countries so far. The objective is to cover the rest of Europe before the end of 2023.

What is the initial response from customers who have been testing it?

We have tested it with several customers and the feedback was really positive. It also helped us to optimise and fine-tune it in terms of reporting and granularity as well.

What's the overall picture in terms of sustainability at Geopost? What are your targets for the next few years and how close are you to those targets?

Sustainability is not new in our organisation. Back in 2012 we started this very challenging journey and started to measure our CO2 emissions. We are committed to carbon neutrality, meaning that we offset all our emissions at no extra cost for our customers. But we have decided to accelerate the pace not only because global warming is really very present but also because our customers are more and more demanding on this topic.  

By 2030 we are committed to reduce our total CO2 emissions by 43% versus 2020. The second step will be by 2040 to reduce our emissions by 90% and to offset the remaining 10% in capture or sequestration programmes. It’s a huge ambition that has been validated by the SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative) and it fits perfectly into the Paris agreement. Actually we will even do better because we will be ready 10 years before the Paris agreement target.

Is this going to require a lot of spending? Will you have to change a lot of operational activities?

The plan is to invest in decarbonisation. The first objective is to decarbonise the last-mile operations. We know that today the technology is available: electric vehicles, cargo bikes, many alternative means are already available to deliver to consumers.  We are pretty well advanced in this area. We have a plan to decarbonise delivery in the 350 largest cities in Europe before 2025. Today we already achieved one third of the plan and we are on a good track to make it happen by 2025, maybe even earlier.

The second part is long-distance transport which is a bit more challenging to decarbonise because the technology today is not totally available or affordable. It's still pretty expensive but we are investing also in starting the transition towards low emissions. We invest a lot for instance in the UK and the Netherlands in HVO which helps also to reduce drastically the emissions.

Does Geopost have a view about what will be the best technology option (for the middle mile) or are you testing all kinds of different things?

We are of course testing all different options. Everything is not mature yet so that's why it's important to test and learn. HVO is a good transition option. And that's why for instance in the UK before the end of this year we will convert 100% of our long-distance operations into HVO. It will reduce drastically the emissions. But we know it's not the solution that will be the best option in the future.

Electric vehicles are certainly part of the solution. Today the range of the electric vehicles is not enough for our operations but we know that it will certainly improve by 2025 to 2027. Hydrogen also is an option but is certainly a bit further (away) in our plan, 2030 to 2035.

These are your activities but you are just one player in the whole market. How can the industry work together towards an industry standard, so that everybody is comparing the same kind of figures and data?

For me there are two ways to cooperate. The first one is to be aligned on the same standards to measure and report our CO2 emissions. There are plenty of organisational forums where we can collaborate. As an example, the Smart Freight Centre is a good organisation where the industry can work together on defining common policies or standards or shared visions.

When it comes to standards, we are not starting from scratch. There are some standards that exist already: ISOs, European norms. And I think the European regulation (*) will also help. The regulation will make it necessary to share the same standards and to report the same way, not only in our industry but globally for all companies.

• Note to readers: under the EU’s new Corporate Sustainability Directive (CSRD) all large and many small companies in Europe will have to report on their CO2 emissions in 2025. This reporting will cover their 2024 financial year.
• Further information on the CSRD is available on the European Commission’s website here.