S U S TA I N
SCOTTISH WHOLES
Wholesalers ‘need government help’ to reduce carbon footprint An SWA report highlights to the Scottish Government and its agencies the scale of the challenge the food and drink wholesale sector faces in the transition to net zero.
S
cottish food and drink wholesalers want to reduce their carbon footprint but need more support from the Scottish Government to get there, a new report concludes. The report – the Scottish Wholesale Association’s (SWA) findings from the first phase of its ‘Decarbonisation of the Wholesale Industry’ project – asks for wider financial support from government to set up a wholesale fleet audit service, enable the transition to green fleets, and for research that will help identify further routes to efficiencies within the wholesale sector. Colin Smith, SWA Chief Executive, said: “We need the Scottish Government to provide financial support for wholesalers to implement a wholesale industry-wide driver efficiency training programme to reduce emissions. “Some of our members are already using tools to help reduce emissions through driver efficiencies but we need more financial support to enable more wholesalers, particularly smaller ones who have suffered so much over the past 18 months, to join us on this important journey.” The report’s other key findings include:
● The Scottish wholesale indus-
● There are currently no commer-
try fleet operates a total of 2,198
cially viable zero-emission HGVs
vehicles.
available in the UK.
● Its baseline vehicle carbon emis-
● Hydrogen-powered vehicles would
sions equate to 111,000 tonnes of
appear to be the only commercially
CO2 per annum.
viable option for HGVs but adop-
● 75% of the sector’s total fleet emissions are from HGVs.
tion is many years away. ● The prohibitive cost of vehicles/
● HGVs account for 48% of the total
adaptation, and lack of fuelling
fleet and represent more than
infrastructure, is preventing whole-
3% of all the HGVs registered in
salers transitioning to hydrogen.
Scotland.
40 I SLRMAG.CO.UK / ISSUE 81 WEDNESDAY 10TH NOVEMBER 2021
● Vans account for 16% of the total
