GOING GREEN
It is estimated that transportation and logistics can account for up to 75% of a business’s carbon footprint. It also accounts for 10-15% of a product’s price tag.
It can be easily argued that Scandinavia leads the world in awareness of the need for making transport greener. In Copenhagen and Lund for example, people would rather bike than drive to get to where they want to go.
Looking forward, Scandinavia stands at the forefront at designing and adopting systems and technologies that seek to lower CO2 levels while raising the bottom line. In Israel, the search for renewable energy has led to the highway and rails as energy generated by traffic is being harvested to create electricity.
Sweden's Green Hornet
Rail is considered one of the most environmentally friendly modes of transportation. Fast rail is even more so, as the magnet motor technology on which fast trains are based tends to use less energy than the conventional iron horse.
The introduction of fast trains as an alternative to road and air travel, however, is hindered by cost considerations, not the least of which is the need to construct dedicated tracks on which these trains typically run.
Sweden’s Gröna Tåget (Green Train), developed by Bombardier (www.bombadier.com) in conjunction with the Swedish rail authority, the Royal Institute of Technology – KTH (www.kth.se), rail consultancy group Interfleet Technology (www.interfleet.se) and Schunk Nordiska (www.schunk.se), is designed for speed (up to 280 km/hour), low-noise, all-weather high performance, comfort and stability while running on either a high-speed line or existing ‘low-speed’ track.
It uses an estimated 20-30% less energy when compared with Sweden’s other high-speed rail alternatives. In addition, operation costs per passenger seat as well as travel time are considerably lower. The Gröna Tåget has been in commercial service since January 2009.
Greener Goods on the Go
For surface freight transport in Europe, trucking is still king. With the exception of Estonia and Latvia, where rail rules, aproximately three quarters of all freight transport is conducted by road. Often less time and cost-efficient than trucking, rail accounts for just 17% of EU inland freight. In 2007 the EU adopted a Freight Logistics Action Plan.
The plan does not suggest a coup d’etat in which road freight is overthrown by greener transport modes. It does promote, however, the integration of co-modal transport, primarily rail, inland waterway and short sea shipping, to enable effective environmentally-friendly freight transport.
The Action Plan deals primarily with the software elements needed to make comodality an efficient alternative. Despite Europe’s single passport system, there is still no single travel document for goods transferred cross-border via different transport modes. The Action Program identifies IT as the solution and in January 2010, the EU launched its “e-freight” programme to develop seamless handling and tracking systems for multi-modal transport.
Sustainable Train
Headquartered in Sweden, Green Cargo (www.greencargo.com) is a logistics company with a sustainable difference. One of the three largest third-party logistics in Sweden, its network operates throughout the Nordic countries and Europe. Carrying the “Good Environmental Choice” label, the company transports goods by rail as far as possible and relies on road freight only on the final leg to bring the goods to their destined doorstep.
94% of the goods transported by Green Cargo are carried on electrically powered trains. The company operates 30 terminals and logistics centres which provide warehousing and advanced logistic services as well as shipping. It recently launched two new proprietary overnight intermodal shuttles to Germany from Malmö. Filled with truck trailers, swap bodies and containers, these train shuttles are the equivalent of 40,000 trucks on the same route annually.
Truck - Train Tech
In 2009 Denmark established a Centre for Green Transport (www.centerforgrontranskport.dk) under the Danish Road Safety and Transport Agency. Charged with the task of vetting and testing transport technology, the Centre is involved inter alia in a project promoting more fuel-efficient truck aerodynamics. It administers a DKK 42m. subsidy scheme for truck and trailer aerodynamic equipment.
In Sweden, one company has an original technological solution for trucking – drive them on to trains. Founded in 2000, Flexiwaggon AB (www.flexiwaggon.se) has developed a RO/RO rail platform which enables trucks to be loaded and hooked to a train virtually anywhere within a matter of minutes. No additional special equipment or personnel is required. The truck driver drives directly on to the cradle, and once automatically secured, the wagon is then linked to the train.
It is estimated that the company’s technology can reduce carbon emissions from trucks by up to 75%. Taking trucks off the road contributes considerably to road safety.
The Flexiwagon was tested in 2008. It has been adopted by retail chains, ICA AB and IKEA and has received endorsements from the Swedish Energy Agency, the Swedish Rail Administration and Green Cargo. It has customers in Europe, North America and Asia.
C02-free Freeways
Another initiative sparked by Action Plan is the identification of “green corridors” by 2020. These are freight transport corridors in which advanced technologies and co-modality are used to achieve energy efficiency and reduce negative environmental impacts.
The gauntlet was raised by a consortium of 22 European entities, which included three Norwegian, one Swedish and three Finnish and partners, and the 7th Framework Program, “Super Green” (www.supergreenproject.eu) was born.
Supergreen has already identified 9 corridors throughout Europe, including a pentagonal circuit incorporating Denmark, Norway and Sweden and a straight-line corridor extending from Turku to St. Petersburg.
First Carbon-neutral Highway
In the meantime, Finland has already begun to plan the world’s first carbon-neutral highway on a stretch of the E18 European thoroughfare which links Helsinki to the country’s primary customs border crossing with Russia.
The plan calls for erecting filling stations for electric and biofuel-powered cars, a smart lighting system, geothermal pumps and wind and solar power installations along the road.
Partners in this €700 million project are the Finnish energy companies, Fortum (www.fortum.com) and Neste Oil (www.nesteoil.com), energy tech company Ensto (www.ensto.com) as well as the municipalities of Loviisa, Porvoo and Hamina.
Greening the Highway
Not to be outdone, Norway and Sweden have also thrown their hat into the green highway ring. This international highway stretches from the Atlantic to the Baltic, along European highways E6 and E14. It connects the Norwegian town of Trondheim with Swedish Sundsvall. It is part of a cooperation between the Sundsvall, Östersund and Trondheim municipalities to improve infrastructure and communications systems in this region.
350,000 people populate the area, which is green not only in a metaphorical sense. The region is also rich in renewable energy sources. This green corridor will be distinguished by the array of alternative fuels available to drivers, including biogas, E85 ethanol, electric charging poles and RME biodiesel.
At the same time, these municipalities are in the process of “going electric”, converting public transportation to electric vehicles, designating prime parking spaces for electric vehicles only and providing consumer education on the types of electric and hybrid vehicles available on the market.
Infrastructure Ignition
For at least one Israeli company, carbon neutrality doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of a highway’s green potential. Innowattech (www.innowattech.co.il) has developed technology that harvests energy from the weight and movement of passing traffic.
The company’s piezoelectric generators are placed directly under the road surface and are able both to produce and store the energy for either local use or routing to the grid.
The company has developed dedicated generators for road, rail, heavy pedestrian traffic and for industrial machinery.
Along the road to development, Innowattech discovered that its generators could fulfill monitoring and control functions as well. Real-time data on the type, weight and speed of the vehicle can be transmitted by the generator to facilitate weight and access control. Since the generators are embedded only 5 cm under the asphalt, weight can be accurately measured at any speed.
Innowattech’s rail pads are suitable for steel, concrete or wooden ties in both overground and underground rail systems. As in the road system, electricity is created by the mechanical stress generated by the train.
The electricity produced can be used locally to monitor the function of the train. The company has developed a comprehensive railroad monitoring system that measures the speed, length, number of wagons, number of axels, the weight of all of the above at a given speed, the distance between trains, wheel diameter and track health.
The company’s rail monitoring system is being tested by Israel Railways (www.rail.co.il) at a station on a commercial railway line near Haifa.
