Breaking Down Utilimarc’s GHG Reporting
Sustainability has quickly become a top priority for organizations across all industries around the world. Within the fleet industry especially, it might be hard to find a fleet whose management strategy hasn’t incorporated sustainability initiatives or whose managers don’t at least anticipate change in coming years.
For fleets, tracking and reducing greenhouse gas emissions have become a key priority. You might wonder, why is that? Well, in the United States, transportation is the largest contributor of total emissions, with light-duty vehicles being the largest source followed by medium- and heavy-duty. Together, the three vehicle classes make up 83% of all transportation emissions. For local and state governments, this was a call to enact stricter legislation and restrictions against heavy-polluting vehicles and fleets.
For fleet managers, however, limiting GHGs starts with an accurate understanding of how much their fleet emits in the first place. This is where GHG reporting comes in.
What can GHG reporting do
GHG tracking:
Utilimarc’s GHG analytics solution takes data from different sources to help organizations measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions. This could be at a higher level with a more general overview of emissions, down to the details of which vehicles, classes, and fuel types are contributing the most. These are the insights that allow for impactful change within a fleet, informing managers of their weak spots and where to target first.
By tracking emissions, fleets can better understand their carbon footprint, ensure they are within compliance and identify opportunities for reduction.
Estimated fuel savings from EV:
This dashboard is essential for fleets testing out the idea of going electric. In addition to reducing emissions, many managers have become interested in EVs for the prospect of major fuel savings. For fleets starting out with just a few EVs, this dashboard is a great tool to understand their true impact. View a breakdown of how many gallons of gas your fleet has saved by implementing EVs, show performance results to stakeholders and justify the purchase of more EVs for your fleet.
Progress toward goals:
Our “Progress toward goals” feature acknowledges that every fleet has different goals and a different idea of sustainability. For a municipal fleet with tight GHG limitations, emissions reduction could be a top goal. For another fleet trying to phase out fossil fuels and opt for electric and alternative fuel options instead, fossil fuel reduction is the priority. Whatever sustainability initiatives your fleet decides to implement, tracking progress toward these goals is half of the challenge. Don’t waste time implementing new technologies and strategies just to let any progress go unshared. Know where your fleet stands today and how to get to where you want it to be.
EV candidacy:
For fleets in earlier stages of electrification, knowing which ICEVs can easily be swapped out for EVs can be a great first step. Our EV Candidacy report identifies the vehicles in a fleet that drive within a certain range of miles each day and could be ideal candidates for electrification. The amount that these vehicles are driven is an important factor since it simplifies charging and prevent any ‘range anxiety’ if vehicles are kept locally. By targeting gas-vehicles that already meet these range requirements, the electrification process is seamless and helps to shave off unnecessary GHG emissions year after year.
Good idle vs. bad idle:
One way our GHG analytics tool helps fleets looking to cut down emissions is by looking at their good idle versus bad idle time. Even though the vehicle isn’t being driven, idling still burns fuel and emits tailpipe emissions, contributing to a fleets total GHG output. It can be tricky to tackle idle reduction in cases where idling time is productive and essential to operations: such is the case with bucket trucks. So how can we differentiate when a bucket truck is at work versus a driver sitting in a parked car enjoying the air conditioning in the summer? To distinguish the unproductive idling, we look at idling that doesn’t have PTO attached to it, giving managers a clear target for idle reduction.
How we can help
At the end of the day, all of these insights lay deep within your fleet data. By consolidating your data sources into our powerful Business Intelligence platform, we are able to bring these insights and opportunities to light. Fuel card data alone can put managers on the right path, but information they receive won’t be as clear or insightful. The fact is, BI empowers us to make impactful discoveries and ultimately, get more out of our data.
If you’re interested in learning how our GHG Analytics can help you reach your sustainability commitments, schedule a demo of our platform with a member of our analytics team.
Sadie Dougherty
Data Analyst
Sadie is a data analyst at Utilimarc. She routinely works with clients to engage on greenhouse gas and emissions metrics, helping them to take their sustainability initiatives to the next level. See more from Sadie
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