Mr David Herold and Associate Professor Ki-Hoon Lee recently published an article about the similarities and differences in the measurement and reporting of carbon-related information. Their aim was to capture the underlying logic that drives carbon-disclosure behaviour in the global logistics industry.

Their paper “The Influence of the Sustainability Logic on Carbon Disclosure in the Global Logistics Industry: The Case of DHL, FDX and UPS” is part of a broader research project to understand the disclosure strategies of global logistics companies to decarbonize their transport operations. As a reminder: the operations of DHL, FedEx and UPS are huge and the revenue of each of these companies is bigger than Coca-Cola’s. Moreover, they rely heavily on airplanes, so the carbon emissions output is considerably high and a right strategy would help to avoid the severe consequences of climate change. To understand this commitment to reduce carbon emission, they ask two questions:

  1. Do companies take advantage of disclosure to alter the perceptions of stakeholder or are they make true efforts to reduce harm to the environment?
  2. What are the actual – and measurable – ecological and economic effects of carbon disclosure?

The above-mentioned paper deals mainly with the first question, but provides a foundation for the second question. They found that the three key players DHL, FedEx and UPS in the Courier, Express and Parcel (CEP) industry follow different carbon disclosure strategies to achieve a competitive advantage. Although these findings provide an indication how seriously climate change is taken in these companies, the next step is to find out how this carbon disclosure behaviour affects the actual carbon and financial performance within the global logistics industry. Global logistics companies are predestined to initiate climate change mitigation strategies and this research will help to determine the key practices that will allow these companies to do exactly that.

View the full article Herold, D.M.; Lee, K.-H. The Influence of the Sustainability Logic on Carbon Disclosure in the Global Logistics Industry: The Case of DHL, FDX and UPS. Sustainability 2017, 9, 601.