Shipment-level CO2e for logistics companies

Put the carbon number on every shipment.

You've spent on cleaner trucks and better routes. Climes turns your fuel and trip data into CO2e for every trip, before your customer asks.

What do you run?
Try it on a fleet Book a 20-minute call
Live on every shipment at Varuna Logistics Jeena & Company
LORRY RECEIPTConsignment note, full truckload
No.
LR 26/18402
Consignor
Home-care brand (FMCG)
From
Bhiwandi, MH
To
Hosur, TN
Vehicle
14-wheeler, LNG
Weight
18.4 t
Distance
1,012 km
Return
Empty, 1,012 km
CO2e this trip
1,908 kg
Intensity
102 g per tonne-km
Basis
Fuel-based, well-to-wheel, empty return included
Fuel-based

Example. Typical factors.

The short answer

How do you calculate carbon emissions per shipment?

Multiply the fuel each leg burned by its emission factor. No fuel data? Multiply weight × distance × a default intensity for the vehicle, in g CO2e per tonne-km. ISO 14083 and the GLEC Framework set the method, empty return trips included.

Last verified 3 October 2026. Sources at the end.

Sound familiar?

Fleet owners and carriers

You've bought gas trucks and route software. You still can't say what they saved.

3PL and contract logistics

Every client wants its own share of your trucks and warehouse, in its own format.

Forwarders and multimodal

The tender wants CO2e per leg, subcontracted trucks included. The box is still blank.

Paraphrased from our conversations with logistics teams.

Your diesel is your Scope 1.
It's your customer's Scope 3.

Your fuel lands in your customers' reports (Scope 3, categories 4 and 9). If you don't send the number, they'll guess it.

Why now

Who's asking for your numbers.

Cat. 4 and 9

Your customers' Scope 3

Shippers report your trips. Without your data, they use averages.

45,000+

Supplier requests

Suppliers CDP asked to disclose in 2025.

2 Dec 2030

The EU method

From this date, CountEmissionsEU makes ISO 14083 the method for anyone disclosing EU transport emissions.

2%

India's top 250 listed companies

Their BRSR value-chain disclosure (voluntary) covers partners at 2% or more of purchases or sales.

Prove the money you've already spent.

Your own trucks, or the ones you hire on contract.
Emissions a year
0
tonnes CO2e
Per loaded trip
0
kg CO2e
Saved by gas trucks
0
tonnes a year, against all-diesel
Your fleet against the same trips on diesel
How this is worked out
  • 60,000 loaded km per truck a year.
  • Diesel: 3.48 kg CO2e per litre. A heavy truck: about 1.04 kg per km loaded, 0.85 empty (Smart Freight Centre India, 2025).
  • CNG or LNG: up to 10% lower per km, sometimes no saving.
  • Empty running: +17% of loaded km (India average).
  • Illustrative. Your real numbers come from your fuel records.

The saving is already in your fuel records.

Then the email arrives.

A customer asks all its suppliers for emissions data. Press play.

From Sustainability lead, a listed FMCG company To 12 logistics partners Mon, 09:00
Scope 3 data request: transport emissions FY 2025-26, by lane

Hi all,

We're reporting our value-chain emissions. Please send these by the 15th:

  • Tonnes of CO2e by lane, month by month
  • Fuel type, and the method you used
  • Empty running, if you track it

If we don't get data, we'll use industry averages for your lanes.

Thanks

Her inbox, the next 48 hoursMon 09:00

Whose emissions are these?

One truck, several customers. Split it fairly and each gets a number it can sign off.

A 900 km milk run out of Bhiwandi. Three customers, three stops. Set their loads.

8 t
5 t
3 t

Each customer gets its own share, the same way every month.

Work out one shipment in ten seconds

Free freight emissions calculator.

Weight, distance, mode. See the CO2e, and the same shipment on every other mode.

Mode
0kg CO2e

Default factors, well-to-wheel: Smart Freight Centre India (2025) for road and rail, UK government (2026) for sea and air. Your own fuel data gives a sharper number.

Turn the number into the next contract.

Answer first, with a number that holds up.

RFQ_Logistics_FY27.xlsxSheet: Sustainability · row 14 of 22
Question 14 How do you calculate CO2e per shipment and per leg, and is your method aligned with ISO 14083?

Question wording modelled on published freight tender guidance.

  • Keep the account. Answer the Scope 3 request the same day.
  • Win the tender. Fill the box others leave blank.
  • Show the cleaner lane. Put the gas or rail option's CO2e next to diesel.
Straight answer on green premiums: in India, customers rarely pay more per trip for cleaner freight yet. Preferred-vendor status and easier renewals come first.
How it works

CO2e on every shipment, inside your own system.

Each shipment goes through the Climes Carbon API. The CO2e lands back on the shipment in your ERP, and in Carbon-OS for reports. Varuna and Jeena run it today.

Carbon APIClimes
Waiting for a shipment

Your ERP or TMS

CO2e next to the freight charge.

Carbon-OS

Totals by customer, ready to send.

  1. Connect

    API into your TMS or ERP. Or start with Excel.

  2. Baseline

    Run last year's trips.

  3. Go live

    CO2e on every new shipment.

  4. Share

    Customer reports, tenders, targets.

Method and boundary

Method
Fuel-based first. Modelled defaults, labelled, where fuel data is missing.
Boundary
Well-to-wheel, empty and subcontracted legs included.
Allocation
Tonne-km for trucks, pallet-days for warehouses.
Units
Per trip, tonne-km, pallet, TEU or vehicle delivered.
Standards
Follows the GLEC Framework and ISO 14083.
Factors
More than a million emission factors, including GLEC, Smart Freight Centre India, UK government, US EPA and IPCC.
Privacy
Customer names masked on request.
Already on the road

Running at Varuna and Jeena today.

Road freight, India

CO2e on every shipment, back in Varuna's systems. Each FMCG customer gets a monthly report, and Varuna's sales team uses the data with customers.

Freight forwarding

CO2e on every shipment Jeena moves, flowing back into Jeena's ERP and visible in Carbon-OS.

Before them, we ran the same play inside a digital freight platform.

Glossary

Eight terms, in plain words.

Tonne-km
One tonne moved one kilometre.
Well-to-wheel
Making the fuel plus burning it.
Empty running
Kilometres driven with no load, usually the trip home.
Allocation
Splitting one vehicle's emissions across its shipments, by tonne-km.
ISO 14083:2023
The global standard for transport-chain emissions.
GLEC Framework
Smart Freight Centre's logistics method, aligned with ISO 14083. Version 3.2, October 2025.
Scope 3, categories 4 and 9
Your customers' upstream and downstream transport.
CO2e
All greenhouse gases, counted as CO2.
Where are you today?

Three questions. A plan you can argue with.

See where we'd start with you.

Has a customer asked for emissions data yet?

What have you already spent on? Pick any

Where does your trip and fuel data live?

Questions logistics teams ask.

Is ISO 14083 mandatory?

Not yet. It's a voluntary standard, but the EU's CountEmissionsEU rules make it the required method from 2 December 2030 for anyone disclosing transport emissions in their scope. Many shippers and tenders already ask for it.

Does this work outside India?

Yes. The method is the same on every lane, and our library holds more than a million emission factors across road, rail, sea and air.

What's a typical CO2e per tonne-km for a truck in India?

About 66 g for a 30 to 50 tonne diesel truck, 55 g for a tractor-trailer and 11 g for rail (Smart Freight Centre India, 2025, well-to-wheel). Your own fuel data will differ.

What's the CO2e per tonne-km for sea and air freight?

About 20 g for an average container ship and 666 g for international air freight (UK government, 2026, well-to-wheel). Air is more than 30 times sea.

What is the GLEC Framework?

Smart Freight Centre's method for logistics emissions across road, rail, sea, air and hubs. It's aligned with ISO 14083. Version 3.2 came out in October 2025.

How do I calculate Scope 3 category 4 transport emissions?

Get per-shipment emissions from each carrier, fuel-based if possible. Otherwise use weight × distance × a default intensity. Category 4 is transport you pay for. Category 9 is transport after the sale you don't.

How do you split one truck's emissions across customers?

By tonne-km: each customer's weight times the shortest practical distance to its drop, as a share of the trip. The empty return is spread across the loads. It's the ISO 14083 and GLEC default.

Do we need new hardware or a new app?

No. We read what your TMS, ERP, fuel cards or trip sheets already hold. Excel works too.

What if our number comes out worse than our customer's default?

It can happen once empty running counts. We review it with you privately first. You decide what goes to the customer, and we show you where it comes down.

Can you cover subcontracted trucks?

Yes. We use the haulier's fuel data when it exists. Otherwise we model the leg and label it, so you know where better data helps.

Where does our number stop and our customer's start?

We cover every leg you run or arrange. Legs others run sit in their numbers, so no kilometre is counted twice.

What happens to our customer data?

Mask customer names if you like. We don't need driver or consignee details, and you decide what each customer sees.

Bring one month of trips. We'll tell you if it's worth doing.

Twenty minutes with the team behind Varuna's and Jeena's numbers.

Book the 20-minute call or write to carbon-os@climes.io

Sources

  1. ISO 14083:2023, Greenhouse gases: quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions arising from transport chain operations.
  2. Smart Freight Centre India, India Default GHG Emission Values v1.0 (2025), complementing the GLEC Framework.
  3. UK government GHG conversion factors 2026: freighting goods, container ship average and international air freight.
  4. GLEC Framework, Smart Freight Centre, version 3.2 (October 2025).
  5. CountEmissionsEU, Regulation (EU) 2026/1030: adopted 29 April 2026, in force 1 June 2026, applies from 2 December 2030.
  6. GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, categories 4 and 9.
  7. CDP supply chain programme: 45,000+ suppliers asked to disclose in 2025.
  8. SEBI circular of 28 March 2025 on value-chain ESG disclosures and green credits.

Facts on this page last verified 3 October 2026. Interactive figures are illustrative unless a source is named.

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