Global Mobility Solutions sees increase in sustainability consulting and global reporting

Growing numbers of large, international companies are looking to confirm sustainability agendas with clear time frames and set targets, as the environmental clock continues to tick down and zero carbon deadlines loom ever larger.

As a result, demand for Fleet Logistics’ global reporting expertise is currently very high due to the universal movement towards fleet electrification and the need for sustainability reporting amongst large international fleet operators, and especially the detailed monitoring that such transitions require set against ever-changing legislative influences.

Madelaine Webster, Global Consulting Manager within the Global Mobility Solutions unit at Fleet Logistics, reports that there remains a strong demand for electrification consulting projects, as more businesses scale up their plans to go electric as green European deadlines to phase-out combustion engine vehicles get ever nearer.

As a result, many major international companies are now looking to evaluate viable alternatives for corporate transport in terms of carbon emissions, powertrain make-up and cost, and then set firm timelines for action to be taken to achieve their sustainability targets.

Typically, they are then benchmarking the results against market developments and their own corporate sustainability goals to help inform their next steps to achieving their environmental objectives.

Webster said: “A catalyst has been the COP26 conference in Glasgow at the end of last year and future environmental goals set by the participating nations. The spotlight was placed on the impact of businesses, which focused strategies and the need for action. Other factors, such as the supply issues caused by the chip shortage, changes in working practices during the pandemic, and driver demand for greener mobility options, also contributed.’’

 “Companies are coming to us for input and mapping as they realise how detailed and time-consuming planning can be, with clear action points and timelines required rather than a broad outline.

“An important element here is driver profiling, as hybrid working means far more employees are working from home and driving far fewer business miles, as a result. Profiling drivers to confirm which categories would be the most suitable to have electric cars has become very important,” she says.

As well as COP26, other legislative pressure has undoubtedly had an impact in many European countries, says Webster.

In the Netherlands, for example, all companies with more than 100 employees have, from January 1 next year, to report their employees’ business travel and commuting carbon emissions. If the emissions exceed the maximum standard, the company has a four-year window to lower them to acceptable levels.

Possible interventions are travelling fewer kilometers or promoting the use of bicycles, public transport, or electric vehicles.

At a more general level, companies which adhere to Science Based Targets (SBT) may be required to report, not only on CO2 levels in the future, but on all other greenhouse gasses, too, and there will be likely be increased complexity in the manner of calculating mobility and private, business and commuting emissions.

“Environmental legislation is undoubtedly having a major impact on large international companies as they seek to meet not only their own sustainability targets, but those imposed upon them by legislative forces,” says Webster.

As well as environmental legislation, the pandemic has also had an impact on fleet composition, with greater take up of electric vehicles and wider mobility options being made available for employees for whom the company car has become less relevant.

More clients have started to investigate introducing a greater share of alternative powertrains, as more people opt for home working and travelling less business miles, which has made switching to electrified fleets even more practical and economically relevant than before.

“Prior to the pandemic, companies had already been investigating mobility options offered to their employees, as more people questioned the value of a company car in the light of a broader mix of mobility types, including such as car-sharing, e-bikes and e-scooters.

“But the pandemic has certainly accelerated this transition and we are talking to more and more clients about providing their employees with a wider mobility concept. We see Mobility as a Service (MaaS) becoming increasingly relevant on corporate agendas over the coming year,’’ says Webster.

GMS has a number of sophisticated modelling and forecasting tools at its disposal to interrogate and analyse fleet data, as well as introducing its own mobility solutions, such as MobilityBUDGET which was launched in Germany last year.

Last year saw supply of new cars being severely hampered by a global shortage of semi-conductors, and Webster said that over this coming year, shortages of chips would continue to have an impact on supply of new vehicles.

“Supply issues will continue to be more and more relevant. We have all seen the supply issues caused by the shortage of micro-chips for new vehicles. As a result, companies will have to adopt a more flexible approach to keeping their employees mobile, be that in differently specified cars, or considering OEMs that they may never have considered before,” she said.

“Under those circumstances, keeping all drivers, in all markets happy, may prove to be a challenge and one answer may be to offer a wider set of mobility options. Talk to your fleet management providers for further advice,” she said.