Impact // Innovation

One Lineage Europe: Our Commitment to the Planet

An Article by Harld Peters, Senior Vice President of Europe

December 06, 2021

The changing climate is the defining challenge of our time, and every person and organisation has a role to play if we are to keep the planet from overheating. Like our CEO, I’m proud to be part of the One Lineage family as we step up our efforts to address and fight the dramatic consequences of climate change.

We have joined like-minded businesses across sectors and geographies in signing The Climate Pledge, co-founded by Amazon. In doing so, we are pushing ourselves and our peers in the supply chain to take swift actions to reach net-zero carbon emissions – and give our future generations hope about the future of our planet.

At Lineage, we lead by example, applying innovative solutions on the ground and educating our team members. It was my great pleasure to learn about our new and improved site in California, US, where Lineage has its first facility with 100% on-site energy production using solar-array and efficient linear power generators. But as Lineage expands in Europe, we also have a number of important achievements outside the US that are demonstrating how our pledge is translated into action.

For instance, Lineage in the UK maintains a fleet of around 300 trucks of which 98% are low emission EURO VI engines operated by drivers trained to minimise environmental pollution. It also installed solar panels at 80% of its sites and uses Azanefreezer technology to cut energy usage to one-third of the UK’s industry benchmark, resulting into an emission reduction of 1,500 tonnes of CO2 per year.

We also ensure that new members of the One Lineage family take climate and sustainability seriously.

For example, Kloosterboer in the Netherlands, one of our latest acquisitions, invests in sustainable energy at various locations, is a project partner in real-life experiments with autonomous transportation and supports modal shift initiatives in order to reduce CO2. To recognize its achievements, Kloosterboer was awarded the ‘Lean & Green Star Award’, a leading European sustainability program supporting future orientated businesses in the transport and logistics sectors.

These efforts are a good start, and Lineage is playing its part in contributing to the global warming limits set by global leaders at the COP26 climate summit in November. But we also know that everyone, including us, will need to be more ambitious, for the sake of our planet and our children. I will ensure that Lineage in Europe will take further steps in the coming years to make impactful and visible changes to our business to mitigate climate change, setting a positive example that the rest of the logistics industry can follow.

Harld