Every fourth transport used sustainable fuels

In 2023, Frode Laursen ran as much as 26% of its transport on sustainable fuels such as HVO biodiesel, biogas, and electricity. Making sustainable fuels contribute to a significant drop in the company’s CO2 emissions in 2023.

A 22% decrease in three years is how much Frode Laursen has cut its CO2 emissions per handled pallet.

“I am enormously proud of that result, as it shows how much better we are getting at transporting the same amount of goods in a greener way.” says the CEO of Frode Laursen, Thomas Corneliussen,

The result considers the amount of goods transported and stored at the company’s logistics centres. Although Frode Laursen, like the rest of the industry, experienced lower freight volumes in 2023, the result compensates for that difference and shows – despite the falling freight volumes – an improvement of 4%. Altogether, this gives a total improvement of 22% since 2020, and thus Frode Laursen has moved even closer to its goal of a 35% reduction in 2030.

Increased proportion of sustainable fuels

It is, in particular, an increased share of driving on sustainable fuels that has contributed to this positive development. When Frode Laursen experienced lower freight volumes in 2023, the company decided to cut back on diesel trucks and maintain the activity of vehicles that run on sustainable fuels. This meant that the share of sustainable fuels rose from 18 to 26%.

“In recent years, we have strongly emphasized sustainable fuels, particularly HVO and biogas. These are crucial transition technologies as we prepare to roll out electric and potentially hydrogen trucks on a larger scale,” says Thomas Corneliussen, adding that these technologies are still in their early stages and not yet suitable for long-distance and cross-border operations, which form a significant part of Frode Laursen’s activities.

Frode Laursen gained valuable experience in 2023 with its first electric truck. More are on the way, which means that the company expects the share of sustainable fuels for its trucks to continue rising.

Net-Zero 2050

Sustainable fuels will also help Frode Laursen achieve its ambition of reaching Net Zero in 2050.
“In 2024, we joined the Science Based Targets initiative and, in the coming time, will work to set targets that will bring us to Net-Zero in 2050. We have previously been reluctant to set targets this far into the future because there is a great deal of uncertainty about the technologies that will enable CO2 reductions on long transports. However, we also recognize the driving force in setting ambitious goals, so we must learn to live with the fact that we don’t know the whole way there 100% yet.”

40% women

Frode Laursen has not only set 2030 goals in the climate area. The company has also made a clear announcement about targets for the underrepresented gender.
“A minimum of 40% of our managers must be women by 2030,” says Thomas Corneliussen.
Today, women comprise 34% of all managers in Frode Laursen and 27% of the top management layers in the business.
“Although the logistics industry has traditionally been a male-dominated industry, we firmly believe that targeted efforts can pave the way,” says Thomas Corneliussen, and mentions focus on diversity, training in identifying bias, as well as internal talent and development programs, as parts of this targeted effort.

“With the pipeline, we are in the process of establishing, I do not doubt that we will reach the target of a minimum of 40% women,” Thomas Corneliussen asserts.

Read Frode Laursen’s full Sustainability Report here