Determination of environmental footprint of inland container terminals

Abstract

The global warming is forcing us to assess the specifi c environmental impact of all our industrial activities without which we could not imagine our existence anymore. Energy and heat production, industrial production of all kind, agriculture, forestry and other land use, transportation, construction industry and other energy processing and refi ning and transport of fuel. Among stated sources of global Greenhouse Gas Emissions, transportation alone brings a share of 14%, studies show. Due to globalization of the international trade we are not able to avoid the massive movements of raw materials on one side and fi nished products on the other. Thus the Transportation Industry becomes a major factor in production cycle of the majority of products. Transportation modes available today have all the same task, to bring the goods from shipper to consignee as fast and as cheap as possible. Transportation mode selected, isn’t necessarily the environmental friendly mode, but only the “best value for money” for the stakeholders. To stimulate the use of environmental friendlier transportation modes,a proper comparison between modes is required.The standard EN16258 provides methodology for calculating Green-House-Gas Emissions during transportation for all transport modes, but there are some grey areas in logistic chains. In Combined transport, where Rail and Road Transportationsare combined, there is a whole segment of activities,needed to shift from one mode to another, where emissions take place and have to be accounted for.