Minimizing Carbon Footprint from Road Freight Transportation: A Systematic Review of Literature

Abstract

Over the years with the rapid industrialization, the percentage of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has increased drastically. Among the GHGs in the atmosphere Carbon Dioxide has accounted for the highest percentage. Within the past few decades, the atmospheric Carbon concentration has shown a rapid increase thus grabbing the attention of the world population in moving towards emission minimizing strategies. Transportation is accounted as one of the highest contributors of Carbon emission across different regions of the globe. Globalization has allowed the businesses to function as a single unit thus lengthening the supply chains and making it a strong contributor to the increasing Carbon footprint by means of transportation via different modes such as land, sea, air and pipeline. Inland freight transportation is mainly carried out either as road or rail transportation and when considering the breakdown due to agility and flexibility required in modern supply chains, road transportation is mainly practised worldwide. The amount of Carbon footprint left from the road freight transportation varies with many factors, starting from the vehicle type and fuel type up to changes in the business strategies of the firm. Hence most of the business organizations place an increased concern on their logistics activities in order to reduce the percentage of their emissions thus practising a sustainable organizational policy. Based on the literature review, it is supposed to identify the factors that affect the rate of Carbon emission from road freight transportation and the currently available reduction measures that are practised within organizations. This study presents a conceptual framework for carbon emission reduction and factors that affect the rate of carbon emission from road freight transportation, through a comprehensive and systematic review of literature. Hence, the paper will provide an insight in the current available knowledge in the research area and will act as a guide for future research.