NO MORE EXCUSES: ACTION NOW FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT
25 MAY 2018
“We are in the early stages of a sustainability revolution,” says former US Vice President Al Gore. Al Gore spoke at the Scania Sustainable Transport Forum in Stockholm, which gathered industry and political decision-makers to chart the pathway to achieving carbon-free heavy transport by 2050, in keeping with the Paris Agreement.
The call to action has never been more urgent. “Climate change is the most serious challenge that mankind has ever faced,” emphasised Gore. “Scientists are making the point that things are getting even worse than we predicted earlier.”
The situation is worsening as we witness shrinking glaciers, increased flooding, draughts, heat waves, unprecedented heavy rainfalls, hurricanes and disrupted wind and ocean currents. The dramatic consequences are already resulting in uninhabitable areas of the world.
“Although we are at a turning point there is more to do and we are still falling short. Yet the rate of change is pretty impressive,” says Gore.
Solar energy cheaper than fossil fuel
The cost of solar energy is rapidly decreasing and is already below the cost of fossil fuel. In China, 54 percent of new energy comes from solar and wind and in Europe, 77 percent of new generated energy from renewable sources.
Scania has initiated a study that shows that several pathways can be selected to achieve a carbon-free heavy transport system by 2050. These pathways include switching to battery electric vehicles, biofuels, fuel cells or a mix of all these technologies. To succeed, change is needed at a pace never before seen and action must start immediately.
Scania’s President and CEO stated that he was convinced that we can make the transformation to sustainable transport. “We haven’t waited for the politicians, we haven’t even waited for our customers because the two degree global warming increase is not waiting for us. We must work with what we have today – here and now.”
Christiana Figures, who led the negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement, says that prerequisites for initiating these pathways are a compelling vision, stubborn optimism, radical collaboration, contagious leadership and publicised progress.
Shared public and private responsibility
Making progress is dependent on shared responsibility between public and private sectors. “We should not fall into the trap that business needs to take on the role of government. Having said that, we do need purpose-driven corporations such as Scania, with emphasis on a triple bottom line comprising social, environmental and financial goals.”
At the Sustainable Transport Forum Scania, together with energy provider E.ON, infrastructure provider Siemens and global retailer H&M group, announced that they had formed a coalition to accelerate the decarbonisation of heavy transport. “At the end of the day it’s all about mindset,” says Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability H&M group. “One year ago, my 6-year old son asked my husband why we were destroying the planet by not using an electric car. In six-seven years’ time he will be a H&M customer and these are the expectations that H&M will have to meet. We don’t only need to make fashion sustainable but to make sustainability fashionable.”
Partnerships can accelerate the movement
Partnerships such as this will be instrumental on the continuing journey towards fossil-free heavy transport. “We have the technology today but need to partner to accelerate the movement,” says Henriksson. “We see that teaming up with our customers and their customers gives results. But we also need to work closely with policy makers to remove hurdles. We cannot do this alone; we need friends, partner and partnership to make 2050 happen.”
LOGISTICS TO TRANSFORM BUSINESSES
28 MARCH 2018
LOTS Group, an independent part of the Scania and Volkswagen Group, is busy empowering companies to set up and operate sustainable and highly-advanced logistics systems.
Lean Optimised Transport Systems (LOTS) says it all. Scania has long worked with Lean principles and now, in its work with LOTS Group, the Lean process has been digitalised. LOTS Group helps to provide information that can transform businesses by contributing insights that can dramatically reduce waste and increase efficiency.
“We are convinced that the transport sector is on the verge of major change,” says Scania President and CEO, Henrik Henriksson. “We want to undergo this change in close collaboration with our customers and their customers to produce better solutions in both transport and logistics. By combining the experience of Scania with haulage companies’ local and sector knowledge, LOTS Group can achieve a more efficient flow of raw materials.”
LOTS logistics: the ultimate ‘helicopter’ view
Magnus Lindholm, Managing Director of LOTS China and Head of Operations at LOTS Group, is standing before a screen showing a satellite image of China. We see small icons in an area on the coast. As he zooms in it becomes clear that I am looking at a port.
“This is where the paper mill is,” says Lindholm, indicating an area coloured yellow on the image, “…and these are the trucks.” The trucks are represented by small arrows to give the viewer a clear understanding of which way they are facing. It is visualised information at its most powerful. By working with LOTS Group, the client, global forestry company is currently identifying bottlenecks in its operations, and doing so in real time.
From a ‘control tower’ typically three screens that display the data and show exactly what is happening to a customer’s fleet at any one time clients can monitor and improve the day-to day-flow of their fleet. LOTS Group can advise on how to improve the flow by not only identifying the weak points but also by recommending possible tailored solutions, such as the best possible trucks for the work.
How it works: Data and transport transparency
“We have a data warehouse, into which goes a great deal of information, such as all the information from our connected trucks, information from our fuel partners, and other key data that supports our optimisation activities,” explains Lindholm.
“Then we use the Lots Transport Management system to visualise where the trucks are and how much fuel they consume, and where there is waste such as unnecessary waiting times.” LOTS has a central IT team which has developed these tools to best visualise the data.
“You should be able to see and steer your fleet from pretty much anywhere in the world,” says Lindholm.
The statistics are fed into software which allows the customer to drill down further into the numbers and see what is happening year-to-year, month-to-month and day-to-day. Working with the customer, targets can be established and, from a starting point of transparency, LOTS Group can help to reveal where there is waste and inefficiency in the extended logistics chain.
By taking a holistic view, looking to reduce waste and increase efficiency, and through continuous improvements, LOTS Group is supporting customers to truly streamline their flow and discover how to improve their daily operations.
- this article originally appeared on Scania Group website
THE GLOBAL DEAL, A WIN, WIN, WIN FOR ALL
27 SEPTEMBER 2016
On 21 September Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, launched the Global Deal at UN Head Quarters, New York.
Scania is a company that prides itself on meeting and overcoming tough challenges. Today’s globalised world presents more complex and essential tasks, often presenting more questions than answers than ever before. The newly proposed Global Deal: Enhanced Social Dialogue for Decent Work and Inclusive Growth is seen as a solution based on the Swedish model.
The Global Deal pays close attention to effective industrial relations and decent working conditions. It is a vision which Scania is proud to support.
Scania and the Deal
Although Scania is a wholly Swedish company, it also is a truly global employer with 46,000 employees operating in more than 100 countries. Scania recognises that the foundation of the company’s success is in motivated, engaged and highly skilled employees. “Supporting Global Deal comes naturally to us. Scania has a unique corporate culture where one of our company’s core values is ‘respect for the individual’,” says Kent Conradson, Executive Vice President, Human Resources at Scania.
Scania is currently developing its guidelines and agreements regarding Labour Relations-structure, minimum requirements for human rights, labour rights and more. The development will ensure that the guidelines are in line with the most stringent standards in the area. Scania previously signed the UN Global Compact, now complemented by Agenda 2030 and its sustainability goals.
“Global Deal creates a natural platform for Scania and its employees for further co-operation and improvements,” says Lisa Lorentzon, chairman of Akademikerföreningen (the academic union) at Scania.
Stronger together
The Global Deal is defined by a ‘joint global partnership initiative with like-minded countries, companies and organisations’ Scania is working alongside major companies such as H&M as well as transformative business groups such as the B team, world leaders and non-governmental organisations including ILO, OECD and international trade union organisations. Together their aim is to jointly address the challenges in the global labour market and enable all people to benefit from globalisation.
The win, win, win
The objectives of the Global Deal are effective industrial relations, decent work and quality jobs for all. If met they will contribute to greater equality and inclusive economic development. This will benefit workers, companies and societies. It is, ultimately, a ‘win-win-win’ for all.
More information:
Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, talks about Why Canada supports the Global Deal»
Secretary General of the OECD talks about Why the Global Deal is important»
PROMOTING WELLNESS AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLES
12 MAY 2017
From local football teams to national ski teams and international awards, Scania chooses to sponsor specific organisations and events sharing in the company’s values.
Through sponsoring and partnering with specific events and organisations such as; Nobel Media, the Swedish cross-country team and contemporary circus troupes, Scania continues to fulfil its commitment to a more sustainable world.
Scania works together with the Swedish cross-country ski team by supporting it with a new ski-waxing truck.Peggy Bergman
Sponsorship and partnership agreements are not only about tickets and brand placement at events. Scania uses sponsorship and partnership agreements as a way of re-enforcing and promoting many of its core values.
“Sponsorship is a tool for highlighting what we stand for, strengthening Scania both externally and internally,”says Izla Aho, Sponsorship and communications, brand management.
A sustainable society
Sponsorship of events is linked to employees and families coming together and enjoying their spare time in places organised by institutions that share in values that Scania holds strong such as; team spirit and determination.
The organisations and local events that Scania supports are in accordance with the company’s strong belief in, and support of, a more sustainable society.
Scania Iberica sponsored the FIM MotoGP World Championships.
Just outside of Madrid in Spain, Scania Iberica works to plant a tree for each bus and truck sold in Spain and Portugal, now the forest stands at more than 13,600 trees and counting. Also in Spain and reflecting Scania’s core values of both team spirit and determination, in 2015 Scania Iberica sponsored the FIM MotoGP World Championships. After being appointed official truck provider for the event the company supplied 14 V8 trucks for official use. These provided the vital service of transporting equipment from circuit to circuit, ensuring that the races could take place.
A healthy lifestyle
Scania has always believed in promoting wellness and healthy lifestyles and so in Brazil the company supported one the of the country’s favourite sports – Judo. Additionally, just as in Sweden, Scania also provides trucks for ski waxing to the Norwegian national Ski team. By providing these services Scania fulfils its promise to solve transport tasks in a sustainable way.
Healthier, more efficient and better organised. Many improvements have been achieved since the cross-country skiing teams received their Scania waxing trailers.
Healthier, more efficient and better organised. Many improvements have been achieved since the cross-country skiing teams received their Scania waxing trailers.
“Here we do what we are experts in, finding tailored transport solutions. We contribute with vehicles and improve the drivers’ conditions in an innovative way. When it comes to the waxing truck, the working environment of the waxers was also drastically improved, something we were first with,” says Mikael Person, Head of Brand Management.
With integrity and by working with those championing shared values of dedication, team work and respect of the individual Scania demonstrates the company’s clear direction towards a more sustainable society overall.