Gaining CO₂ transparency as a full-service logistics provider

Challenge: Managing data complexity across diverse business operations

In 2021, NOSTA set up a dedicated Sustainable Solutions department for identifying and implementing actions for making the company more sustainable. A variety of potential measures were discussed, ranging from recyclable water bottles in meeting rooms to optimizing routes and modes of transport and expanding the fleet of vehicles. Ultimately, it became clear that for an impactful sustainability strategy, actions above all had to be measurable and that a baseline was needed to define where the company stands.

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As a full-service logistics provider, NOSTA handles its transports multimodally – from road to rail, by ship or air freight – and works with a large number of subcontractors. In addition, full truck loads and part loads are carried out for road transport, as well as express transportation of sensitive cargo. NOSTA also handles contract logistics and e-commerce, including warehousing services.

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This diverse range of business operations increases the complexity of gaining transparency over the company's own emission values. It leads to thousands of generated data points that are scattered across different departments and systems which need to be merged. Before NOSTA's transport and logistics emissions could be calculated, the major issue of data management had to be dealt with. One of the most important aspects was establishing a solid data basis that allows for precise emissions calculation as well as establishing a process for maintaining data quality.

“In some cases, preliminary calculations are requested that we can prepare using valid data. Sustainability is not yet the main prerequisite for winning a contract, but it definitely is a plus.”

Solution: Comprehensive data integration and quality enhancement

NOSTA's transport data from land, air and sea freight has been integrated into the shipzero platform and is constantly being updated to include the latest orders. Via interfaces from transport management and other logistics information systems, shipzero transfers the data for all processes such as orders or routings into the data platform. Once the data is validated, it gets converted into CO₂ emission values. Through harmonizing the transport data with the order information, emission reports can be created for customers at shipment level.

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Through shipzero's data clarification reports, NOSTA regularly receives a detailed overview of the quality of its data, highlighting inconsistencies, such as incorrect distances, excessive weights, or lacking information of the place of departure or arrival. Especially in the road segment, NOSTA has been able to continuously optimize its own data structure, making the data input and data collection stage more complete and accurate – a benefit for the overall corporate data landscape, not just for calculating emissions.‍

"The ease of use of the data platform and the clarity of the dashboards were exactly what we were looking for. We no longer have to work with confusing Excel spreadsheets but can quickly access the information we need thanks to the simple visual display and filtering functions. This reduces the internal workload enormously."

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Results: Efficient reporting and strengthened customer relationships

With just a few clicks, NOSTA is able to download detailed emissions reports from shipzero. The interest in emissions data is growing, with a wide range of NOSTA departments requesting insights. The Sustainable Solutions department can now make relevant data from the shipzero platform available to other departments and support them in addressing their sustainability issues. Having such detailed insights into NOSTA's emissions readily available also prepares the company for sustainability audits and reporting requirements such as those brought forward in the CSRD.

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More and more customers show interest in NOSTA's sustainability efforts. The logistics provider is using shipzero to address this growing demand for their transport's emission data. Especially the sales and dispositions teams regularly submit requests to share emissions data with NOSTA's customers and partners.

“We are already noticing that the provision of emissions data is becoming increasingly relevant and that we can not only strengthen our ties with existing customers, but also win new orders.”

Outlook: Expanding to warehouse logistics and targeted decarbonization

CO₂ transparency is gradually becoming a reality at the NOSTA Group. Within a few months time, the company has managed to lift its data quality to a significantly higher level and is bringing more transparency to various business areas. Furthermore, NOSTA is planning to integrate warehouse logistics into the shipzero platform, in addition to the data from road, sea and air transportation that is already being analyzed. The aim is to enable NOSTA's Sustainable Solutions department to report on the entire corporate carbon footprint (CCF) from a single source without having to rely on multiple providers.

Through gaining such a detailed understanding of NOSTA's emissions data, the company is laying the groundwork for targeted decarbonization projects. The processing of transport and logistics data in shipzero allows for a data-based determination of reduction potentials. For example, for routes, combined transport, or the warehouse area. While NOSTA currently focusses on diving even deeper into understanding its own emissions, the longer-term goal is clear: to gradually reduce emissions and the company's carbon footprint.