IEMA CEO speaks alongside government and haulage industry at Scania COP26 event

Today (Monday 8 November 2021), IEMA’s Chief Executive Officer Sarah Mukherjee MBE spoke at an event near Glasgow hosted by haulage company Scania, to discuss how IEMA and its membership can help transform the transport and freight sector towards net zero.

The event, which was hosted at Scania’s first zero emission heavy vehicles garage near Motherwell, Scotland, saw speakers from Scania UK and Scania Global, the Department of Transport, IEMA, SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders), National Grid, Siemens Mobility, CNG Fuels, Air Liquide, Green Biofuels and Argent.

Sarah told the gathered audience, both in person and via livestream, about IEMA’s approach to supporting environment and sustainability professionals to decarbonise the transport and haulage sector, centred on IEMA’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions hierarchy. She said that peer-to-peer learning within the IEMA membership community, which includes individuals and corporations, has proved critical for organisations, as diverse as clothing brand Seasalt and the Ministry of Defence, to learn from each other about how to transition their organisations to net zero.

She highlighted the Environment Bill as a key enabler for the haulage industry to bring down their emissions, given the strong signal that the Bill is sending to everyone that the government is fully committed to addressing the climate emergency.

Sarah mentioned a new initiative from a consortium which IEMA is leading called zerocarbonbusiness.uk, which is a tool aimed at SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) to provide them with the tools for transitioning to net zero.

She also introduced IEMA’s Diverse Sustainability Initiative (DSI), and said that organisations which lack diversity risk failure. The sustainability sector is the second least diverse profession in the UK, and DSI is working with 50 major organisations and their CEO’s to change this.

Finally, in response to a question about what first steps businesses can take on their sustainability journey, IEMA’s CEO said they should take advantage of the wide range of training opportunities available through IEMA and its partners, and that businesses need to identify their baselines in terms of where they want to move away from and towards net zero.