Q&A: How Girteka is Turning Ambition into Action on Net Zero Goals

Author: Thorfinn Stainforth

The Environmental Defense Fund is highlighting businesses that are advancing serious steps toward reducing their greenhouse gas emissions while building strong, profitable businesses in a series of leader interviews. These businesses have seized the opportunity to innovate with circular economic principles, renewable energy and leading technologies to provide the goods and services people need today. EDF’s Helen Spence-Jackson interviews Viktorija Tereke, Head of Sustainability for Girteka Group, below in the next interview of the series.

Sustainability Goal

Helen: I’m just wondering what is your main sustainability goal? And could you can say a little bit about what led you to it, was it from your leadership? Was it from your investors or a sense of what consumers wanted?

Viktorija: First of all, we made the conscious decision to be, a responsible logistics provider. We started our journey with rail operators in 2017. We were one of the first companies in the Baltic states to open the rail flow for the same equipment that was going on the road. The second point are the regulations that are coming up. We are preparing step by step to follow all directives or regulations. The third part is definitely the customers, who have very deep knowledge of the sustainable journey and goals. The customers are bringing us to higher consciousness and urge us to make decisions to invest and implement these solutions as much as we can, in order to be net zero by 2050.

Challenges and Triumphs

Helen: What’s been the hardest part of the journey so far?

Viktorija: I would say that trying to find the balance between national regulations and the international regulations for us, it’s definitely a task. Basically, in the whole transport sector, you have commonly used practices and rules, such as the CMR convention [Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road]. However, sustainability requires completely different knowledge. National knowledge and knowledge on what kind of energy resources will be developed in that particular country is very important. Bearing in mind that, if you are planning to invest in a particular solution, it should be applicable as widely as possible because we are operating across long distances in the European Union.

Helen: What’s been the best part so far of this sustainability journey for you?

Viktorija: We set a pretty high standard in inter-modality, which was something new. Trains have been running for a long time, but we offered a unique product – like the temperature control of goods. The operational level that we reached with our partners and the rail providers allowed us to transport perishable food on the train. Bearing in mind that it is a longer transit time, it is still a profitable business and also a sustainable business. It’s good for the business and for our clients, to continue that journey. So I think this was a big success.

Sustainable Shifts from Roads to Rails

Helen: There have been some challenges in Europe shifting more cargo onto rail. What do you think is needed to boost this effort further?

Viktorija: There should be alignment between national, requests on the rail operators and international ones because, there are completely different regulations for example in Belgium and in Germany. We need a regulatory base, that allows aligned operations between countries.

Secondly, we need consistent funds supporting the ultimate goal.

“I would say what is missing, is the clear inventory of funding opportunities for rail operators. How are those funds pushing rail operators, really to track, decarbonization in terms of shifting the trucks from the road to rail.

Thirdly, to have an aligned time frame for implementation and milestones, as we do have a very ambitious plan by 2030, and I see that the rail operators are not at the same pace.

Helen: And one of the things that I really enjoyed reading about in the compendium, examples that you shared was how you had managed to encourage your drivers to behave differently in terms of the way they think about sustainability. Could you explain how you have encouraged drivers to think differently about their driving habits?

Viktorija: We have implemented Eco-League program and full regular trainings on eco-driving. Our figures show that the drivers that are finishing that education contribute to reduction of 2% our CO2 emissions. It might seem like that’s not a very high figure, but, having in mind that in the European Union, we do have 6 million trucks that are crossing all around and if each of these trucks might reduce by 2% [its emissions] just because of the maneuvers of driving the truck, that would be a significant impact. So, the dedicated software is linked to truck’s engine and sensors, which track data about acceleration, the speed, and so on. And later analyze it and calculate the eco score of driver.

Drivers have the opportunity to compete in Eco League between themselves. They might win some prizes and so on. From an additional perspective, this is very important just because, we might as well make analyze the technology that we are buying and the real fuel consumption. And each technology provider requires a little bit different, methodology for the driving. So for us, it’s like not just the driving program itself that allows us to make some kind of the conclusions. It allows us to consider what kind of the strategy we can use going forward. Like will we keep buying some technology, but as well, we might develop together with the technology provider some additional features. So for example, maybe this part of truck’s software should be changed into another one. So this, league it’s not just because of the need to improve driving, I would say, but it allows us to know more deeply the technology or the behavior and that allows us to adapt and create more and more partnerships with our OEMs and a lot of side projects to improve our performance.

EU Policy Implications

Helen: We’re at the start of a new EU mandate. It’s at a time where ideas can be pitched to decision makers for the future while they’re drawing up their work program. So, for you, what’s next? What would you like the European Commission and the European, decision makers to think about and what will help you get to your goals faster?

Viktorija:

“Do not pull away from the course that has been laid out, because all the private sector is making their own decisions and investments based on this direction.

Also, I think that the regulatory base should be aligned, because we do have a lot of mobility package requirements, and Green Deal requirements which are not yet aligned.

The Power of Partnerships

Helen: Do you have any partnerships with NGOs or other organizations?

Viktroija: Yes, we are an active member of few sectoral associations and European NGO’s. Also we are working with sector key thinktanks, for example, from time to time with Smart Freight Center. Collaboration with NGOs allow us to, to really see the sector from a different, sometimes scientific perspective. This is amazing education for us. This is something unique. So, for example, our collaboration with Smart Freight Center, allows us to keep up with the latest news, such as things like even the local initiatives, net zero, or zero waste festival that we are participating in also to show our engagement in social activities.

The second perspective is a bit with our partners or technical providers. That allows us, you know, to analyze the data, and then to really create some new practices that have never been tested or scaled before.

And then the third part, this is a strategic approach with our clients. If both sides understand what kind of price there might be in terms of the knowledge, time or whatever for keeping the green course then it’s not going to cause turbulence to scale up those products with clients. So, rather than moving from tender to tender, probably we should think that sustainability should be the one, the place where both sides are sitting by the one table and creating a long term, partnership and co-creating instead of like conducting simple, transactional, business relations.

There is no need to slow down climate ambition for the sake of business – in fact, businesses are showing that emissions cuts do not come at the expense of economic prosperity. Explore our suite of free resources to learn about how you can act on your climate goals today.