BASEL, Switzerland: Panalpina has begun automatically calculating the emissions from all transport services provided to its customers in 20 EU countries.

The logistics company is using a calculator from Hanover-based EcoTransIT World to determine upstream emissions from fuel production, other greenhouse gases including methane and nitrous oxide, and overall energy consumption.

Panalpina says the calculator, based on the new reporting standard EN 16258, enables its customers to reduce the environmental impact of their global transport chains.

According to Lindsay Zingg, global head of Quality, Health, Safety and Environment at Panalpina, "EcoTransIT is a proven technology for mass calculations with a flexible interface. With the new system we can run far more accurate and detailed reports and do it much more efficiently than in the past."

Zingg says the next step will be to make the tool directly accessible to Panalpina's customers: "Our goal is also to be able to give up-front online information on the CO2 impact of a single shipment. Our final stage will be to include CO2 levels and other environmental data in invoices."

EcoTransIT calculates emissions for each shipment including pre- and on-carriage movements based on distance, weight, transport mode, and the type of vessel or aircraft. Currently all necessary shipment information is sent from Panalpina's communication platform to EcoTransIT servers where algorithms are applied to calculate emissions and other parameters. The subsequent results are then used by Panalpina to run customer reports.

EcoTransIT was begun by in 2000 by five European railway companies - DB Schenker Rail, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB), Green Cargo AB, Trenitalia S.p.A, and the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF).The group has since expanded with the addition of Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (RENFE) and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges (SNCB).

The tool was built by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (ifeu) in Heidelberg, the Öko-Institut from Berlin, and the Rail Management Consultants GmbH (RMCon/ IVE mbH) in Hanover.

"We want to be a pro-active player in environmental aspects. By providing our customers with the best possible accuracy and transparency for measuring the environmental impact of their shipments, we enable them to make informed decisions about the optimal mode of transport and routes," adds Zingg.