Cutting Scope 3 Emissions in Retail Transportation

1. Executive Summary: During his Internship at Dollar Tree, Jose Diego developed a strategy to reduce transportation emissions by engaging with 40+ suppliers and by identifying optimization opportunities.
2. Importance: Dollar Tree recently announced a major commitment to set a science-based Net Zero target by June 2024, a goal that will cover the company’s entire value chain. At the forefront of this endeavor, Jose assumed the pivotal role in formulating a comprehensive strategy aimed at mitigating transportation Scope 3 emissions.
3. Impact and Reach: Aggregating the emissions reduction goals from Dollar Tree’s transportation suppliers, we estimate a decrease of about 110,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions by 2032. In addition to this decrease driven by the performance of our carriers, we estimated a potential reduction of another ~43,000 metric tons of carbon emissions that could take place if the 3 initiatives proposed (Focusing on Fuel Efficient Suppliers, Increasing Use of Rail Transportation, and Increasing Trailer Utilization) are fully developed.
4. and 5. Jose approached the challenge by:
a) Engaging with more than 40 transportation suppliers, identifying their current emissions factor (SmartWay) and their emissions reduction goals for the future.
b) Creating a tool that optimizes miles allocated to each of the carriers based on their individual emissions factor in 2022, with the objective of achieving maximal emissions reduction.
c) Analyzing historical data and finding the following opportunities a) Increasing Use of Rail Transportation in inbound shipments; and b) Increasing Trailer Utilization in inbound and outbound shipments.
d) Suggesting the Global Logistics team consider joining the Zero Emissions Maritime Buyers Alliance – an initiative that presents a low-risk opportunity to begin analyzing the feasibility of adopting zero-emission fuels in ocean shipping