ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has introduced what it says is a first-of-its-kind program for customers to reduce freight emissions, offering verified certificates of emission reduction.
With shipping by rail reducing emissions by 75% on average, the NS RailGreen program allows shippers to address the remaining 25%. The program developed with 123Carbon, an independent book-and-claim platform, reflects the railroad’s use of biofuels. The third-party certified biofuels generate RailGreen certificates; customers can purchase these certificates to apply toward their supply chain emissions. As customers purchase certificats, NS will purchase more biofuel for use across its operations.
“Rail is already the most sustainable way to transport goods over land. RailGreen takes emissions savings to the next level,” Ed Elkins, Norfolk Southern chief commercial officer, said in a press release. “RailGreen reduces customers’ emissions, increases our biofuel use and solves a long-term industry challenge.”
The program uses 123Carbon’s blockchain-backed Environmental Attribute Certificates to certify that each one of reduced CO2 emissions is tracked to prevent double-counting. The third-party validation helps meet international standards.
“We are proud to partner with Norfolk Southern to deliver verified, transparent emissions reduction to the freight rail industry,” said Jeroen Van Heningen, managing director of 123Carbon. “RailGreen represents a groundbreaking shift by providing real, measurable supply chain decarbonization for freight rail.”
More information is available at the Norfolk Southern website.
Of course rail lessens emissions. For sure there is less fuel use and less pollution. That’s not in dispute. All of us on these pages are rail advocates.
But by how much? Are the numbers really accurate? A “greenie” bureaucracy at a railroad is just as capable of “best case” statistics as a “greenie” bureaucracy anywhere else.
So let’s take NS’s numbers with a bit of healthy skepticism.
Remember that at the front of the heavy freight train in question, in David Lassen’s stylish photo, an 11-year-old C-C NS diesel-electric locomotive from the EMD SD70ACe series plays the starring role…
Dr. Güntürk Üstün