On March 3, 2021 freight delivery franchise FedEx revealed its plan to go completely carbon neutrality by 2040. This is part of a global trend where companies that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses are becoming greener. With FedEx being such an immense company with a far reach globally, reducing its carbon emissions will have a major effect on the environment.
What is carbon neutrality?
Carbon dioxide is a natural gas that is found in the atmosphere. It is not harmful in small quantities itself but when in a large concentration may cause precarious effects such as global warming by trapping the sun’s energy in the earth’s atmosphere. Companies like FedEx that deliver freight tend to have a large fleet of vehicles that release carbon in the air. Carbon neutrality means reducing the amount of carbon that we emit into the atmosphere. This is basically having a net quantity of carbon emitted that is eliminated.
How will this be done?
$2 billion was announced as the initial investment for this project and it will take multiple steps to accomplish. By 2025 FedEx intends to have 50% of its express pickup vehicles to be fully electric and 100% fully electric by 2030. FedEx also announced that it plans on investing $100 million at Yale University to create the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture in hopes of finding methods to remove and reserve excess carbon dioxide.
What may be more difficult is reducing the carbon emissions from the air fleet. Compared to land vehicles that can be replaced for electric vehicles and be carbon neutral, it is much more complex to be accomplished with air vehicles. However, FedEx’s Fuel Sense initiative has cut over 1 billion gallons of jet fuel lowering the carbon emissions that FedEx’s jets discharged since 2012.
Why is it important for the future?
FedEx is one of the many freight and logistics companies making the switch to non-carbon emitting vehicles. Companies such as Lyft and Uber have similarly planned on going fully carbon-neutral in a few decades or earlier. In a time period of expanding e-commerce where goods that are ordered online are delivered straight to your home or facility, it may be especially crucial to reduce carbon emissions. The reason being is because delivery companies are becoming increasingly popular, which means more vehicles on the road. This may not be a simple task but the potential reward to our planet is valuable.