Leading Logistics Company – Delivering “Green” Innovation

A leading global logistics company wanted to deliver on an initiative to highlight to the wider public as well as their B2B customers that they were taking their corporate social responsibilities seriously in terms of global climate change and its own carbon footprint.

It wanted to offer an online carbon calculator service to their B2B customers and any business that wanted to evaluate carbon footprint of their supply chain transportation activity. The carbon calculator would show the amount of carbon emissions produced whenever a logistical operation was completed.

A start point and destination could be input, along with details of the consignment and method of transport and the app would calculate the amount of carbon produced by the cargo’s journey. The scenario could then be repeated using different parameters to find the optimum solution when set against environmental impact.

Information would have to be drawn from different sources and processed by a calculating engine which would be common for a similar service offered to its B2B customers, while keeping the two calculators separate. Great care would be needed to ensure that high level of accuracy and probity would be released to public domain, to protect the client’s reputation.

Using a structured project management approach, the Incepteo software development team applied their experience in converting client ideas into robust, durable code to clarify requirements and features. They also identified the information sources required to make carbon emission calculations.

The app would require third-party integration of multiple layers of data, including accurate mapping data. The user would also need to select options such for consignment data and mode of transportation.

The system would calculate distances and apply a core logic to the collated data. The team realised that by using an adapted version of a similar, but internal, calculating engine used the client’s customers, they could use some of its common data and functionality to output a result.

The most up-to-date and relevant technologies were applied to an initial model, including Angular, NodeJS, jQuery, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap and Geo Maps, with a MongoDB cross-platform database solution. The app would also be Cloud-hosted using Amazon Web Services (AWS) for greater potential user capacity and security.

The initial design was then prototyped, visibly showing the client what the solution would look like before it was developed into the final product.

The client now provides an accurate and user-friendly app for the general public to see the carbon emission consequences of their planned logistical activities. Since the app went live in 2016, on time and to budget, its measured monthly usage has increased by over 400%.

Although the drivers for the project were corporate responsibility and reputation rather than commercial, the Incepteo team made use of Microsoft Azure and incorporated Google Analytics into the solution so that the client can offer business customers a monthly calculation of their own logistics carbon usage.

This capability to make complex calculations for carbon usage is useful B2B for customers’ own green auditing and could prove increasingly important in the future as businesses are expected to account for their carbon footprint. The app also has the potential to help those companies to improve their efficiency and potentially reduce transportation costs with the client, potentially enhancing customer loyalty.

The client also benefits from the information generated from the app which can generate regular reports, facilitating internal presenting on how the client is performing against its Carbon footprint related SLAs.

The carbon calculator demonstrates the company’s green credentials and corporate responsibility on a global scale while offering a valuable service both to the public and their customers.