Fleet News Group podcast, where host Caroline Falls talks about the intersection of fleet and sustainability introduces Heather Bone, the director ESG — environment, social and governance, ostensibly chief sustainability officer at Team Global Express.
Bone is a regular on the speaker and panel circuit at fleet transport, and sustainability conferences.
Team Global Express is making a name for itself as a leader in the transition for a greener lower emissions fleet. It emerged out of the Japan Post Toll Group when the unit was hived off to a private equity group Allegro Funds in September 2021. It rebadged itself from Toll Global Express to Team Global Express, still the team at TSG.
Bone is involved with the transition of the multifarious fleet. How many vehicles and what does the fleet comprise?
“On any given day about 7,000 or so trucks to ships that go back and forth between the mainland and Tasmania, 41 planes that take a whole lot of belly freight all around Australia as well, particularly into regional areas, about 1,500 forklifts. So we have a huge footprint when it comes to using diesel and in that hard to abate sector.
“We’re starting off by a very large project. It’s one of the largest trials in the world, using 60 electric trucks out at our facility in Western Sydney. And that’s the kickoff of our path to decarbonisation,” said Bone.
Bone talked about adopting hydrogen, the dynamic and fast changing role of sustainability experts in organisations as everyone everywhere is talking about the transformative drive to lower emissions, and the benefits of the new focus and the innovations it fosters.
The heavy transport sector will undoubtedly be hydrogen said Bone, adding it may take a decade before it’s apparent.
“It needs to be a liquid source of hydrogen, not a gaseous source of hydrogen,” said Bone, adding, and also, “We need to have renewable diesel. And I cannot emphasise this enough, we need to have a bio-derived hydrocracked renewable source of diesel. And by that I mean, it’s chemically indecipherable from mineral diesel. If we had it now, at a price that compares to mineral diesel, we would be using it in 100 percent of our fleet without a doubt. And we would be reducing our emissions down to zero straightaway.
“We’re going to see a combination of things in order for us to be successful, we’re going to need to change the fuel on the ships when they come out of the water, and we can make the necessary changes to the engines. And for our flying colleagues, we’re going to need to have sustainable aviation fuel. So there’s not going to be one magic silver bullet.”
Have a listen, it’s educational.
