Dollar Tree – Jose Diego – 2023

Goals

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. Jose was responsible for developing a repeatable data collection process from Dollar Tree’s transportation providers, as well as identifying areas to move to low-carbon options.

Solutions

Jose approached the challenge by:

• Engaging with more than 40 transportation suppliers, identifying their current emissions factor (SmartWay) and their emissions reduction goals for the future.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

Potential Impact

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.