FedEx steers towards 2020 target with 22% fuel efficiency improvement

The express transportation company previously stated that its goal for 2020 was to improve the fuel efficiency of the FedEx Express delivery vehicle fleet by 20%, using 2005 as the baseline year.

Having surpassed this target last year, the company announced earlier this year that it had increased its vehicle fuel efficiency goal to a 30% improvement by 2020.

The report also shows that the company has reduced its aircraft CO2 emissions intensity by 4%, bringing its cumulative reduction to 18% compared with 2005.

Last year, FedEx also increased its global aircraft emissions intensity goal, measured as CO2 emissions per available ton mile, by 50% to a 30% intensity reduction by 2020 from 2005.

The FedEx vehicle fleet includes 90,000 company-owned and contracted vehicles around the world, while on the jet side it has more than 650 aircraft generating the majority of its Scope 1 CO2 emissions.

FedEx’s CEO Frederick W. Smith said: “As a big consumer of oil, FedEx committed years ago to monitor our footprint across the industry and the globe. We continue to focus on alternative transport fuel sources such as electricity, natural gas, and biofuels”.

In addition to reducing fuel efficiency, FedEx has installed several solar-energy systems at many of its sites, which have generated more than 20GWh of electricity.

The company now have nine solar-energy facilities, six in the US and three in Europe, which has reduced CO2 emissions by an estimated 6,989 metric tons, roughly equivalent to 783,520 gallons of gasoline or 179,205 tree seedlings growing for 10 years, based on the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.

Leigh Stringer