SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY

1. Why should we address mobility when addressing sustainability?

The movement of goods and people are mandatory for ordinary life and societal stability. Economic growth worldwide is premised upon various forms of mobility, including the movement of materials to worksites, the distribution of finished products to markets, the daily travel of workers, and the emergency travel of those in need of medical assistance.

Economic globalisation, higher living standards and the boom in tourism have spurred on an increase in passenger and freight volumes worldwide and are expected to triple by 2050 if current demands continue. With nearly all forms of transportation relying on petroleum products, it is no surprise then that the transportation sector is responsible for the fastest growth in CO2 emissions.

In order to limit, control and associate responsibility over carbon emissions, governments and businesses worldwide have committed to the

Paris Agreement objectives, but reaching these objectives is not easy. For years, technology has focused on operational efficiency, but achieving emissions efficiency is not a trivial task.

Road transportation of passengers and goods (by car, truck, bus or two-wheeler) account for between 20% and 25% of world energy consumption and carbon emissions1. These systems are complex, and decarbonisation will require companies to collaborate on: collecting and sharing data, implementing and adopting solutions and access to funding.

Mobility touches us all, and whilst it is hard to decarbonise, it is not impossible. With the aid of advanced technology, we can achieve the needed collaboration and fusion of data across supply chains. Once achieved, new business models can be implemented and generate new values of monetary and planetary - to each and every one of the stakeholders involved.

2. The problem - Why is it challenging to decarbonise transportation?

The challenge with decarbonising road transportation is that a shift needs to occur whereby fleets not only pursue operational efficiency, but also pursue emissions efficiency. And not only that, but they need to ensure their transition to net-zero is viable. Companies need to be able to measure a fleet’s existing emissions, before understanding how to reduce these. Then they need to consider how reduction initiatives will be funded, especially when there are multiple beneficiaries in place.

Many fleets have no visibility over their carbon emissions, let alone their emission hotspots.

Current methods used to calculate carbon footprints can be very rudimentary, and therefore inaccurate such as making use of ‘spend data’ gathered from bills and invoices, along with default emission factors created from high-level industry averages and external data sets. These methods provide a simple average and reference point but are insufficient to make any meaningful improvements. In order to execute a reduction policy, organisations must obtain insights of much higher accuracy. The use of primary usage data and intelligent simulations are essential for supporting the execution of reduction initiatives.

Companies already have access to primary data from across a variety of siloes such as mobility data, organisational data, external pollution and energy data. The challenge lies in blending these very different data sets in addition to many others across their entire supply chain, periodically and in an automated way to generate meaningful insights that organisations need to guide their sustainability efforts.

Consider a retailer who has packed the truck, and a fleet manager who has plotted the route. One knows the weight of each load but does not keep track of how far it goes, or what type of fuel the vehicle uses, or how much it has used. The other knows the distance of their routes, their demand, and what is being spent on fuel, but doesn’t know the details of each load. In reality, both should be in constant communication with each other in order to obtain the current emission status of the fleet. To reduce emissions by electrifying the fleet means this combined data is essential. Assessing the electrification of a fleet requires taking additional factors into account, such as the potential need to invest in charging infrastructure or improving the grid capacity. Manually simulating emissions reductions and cost from such initiatives can be complex, time consuming and inaccurate. Moreso, funding such reduction projects require additional assessment of local, national and international regulations, to also understand what government assistance exists (e.g. regulations, tax breaks, or carbon credits). These can be difficult to under- stand, collate and apply to the project correctly. And, when multiple beneficiaries are involved, deciding on the optimal way to finance a project between them can become quite complex.

3. The Solution – introducing on-going visibility via data fusion

‘Clearly’ (a start-up company in Mobilion Ventures portfolio) provides the layer required to tie it all together. ‘Clearly’ interacts before, during and after the project to assess where corporates should invest their time and money, how to identify the right project to reduce emissions; and aid with accessing the appropriate financing by providing solid data support and a means to track its progress with actual results.

‘Clearly’, having spent over a decade in the world of financial services and sustainability, it is no secret that there are large gaps in sustainable mobility surrounding observability of emissions and funding requirements. The ability to blend multiple data sets and obtain the relevant insights is far from trivial. At ‘Clearly’ we understand what companies need in order to gain actionable insights, identify and price carbon reduction projects, and gain access to the necessary public and private funding.”- Danielle

Walsh, CEO.

“The underlying asset of ‘Clearly’ is data technology enabling it to provide its unique values.

There are already a few companies cropping up that harness Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to generate these missing insights, but ‘Clearly’ is the first of its kind to offer trip-level tracking. This means we can accurately simulate and quantify emission reductions to optimally select reduction projects and understand their true cost by pricing in interest rates, grants, tax rebates and carbon credits.” - Dr. Pedro

Baiz, CTO

4. Ending Remarks

Decarbonising mobility is a widely recognised global challenge for humanity. There is an increasing expectation of companies to become leaders in sustainability, the importance of which cannot be underestimated. Consumers highly associate matters of sustainability with brands, which can significantly influence decisions around purchasing from partnering with specific companies. This has already led to many companies taking their first steps towards Net-Zero by announcing carbon reduction targets set in line with frameworks like the Science Based Targets initiative (e.g. aiming to be Net-Zero by 2030).

‘Clearly’ is a data-led mobility emissions platform, offering net-zero solutions for road transportation decarbonisation and access to sustainability-linked finance for retailers and logistics providers. 