What is the future of emission data? A study of environmental purchasing criteria in the heavy road freight transport industry in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Heavy road freight transports in Sweden are responsible for a significant portion of national greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier research has looked at the purchasing process of transports in a business-to-business context and established its importance for limiting environmental impact. This thesis’ purpose is to study purchasing criteria related to the climate and explore the potential use of emission data as a criterion. In order to gather data, interviews were conducted with transport operators and customers (large companies) within the forest, food, and construction industry. In total, 12 interviews were done with employees connected to the purchasing process (or selling for operators). A theoretical model was also developed, continuing earlier efforts to explain the process of a purchaser choosing transport provider. The results include nine number of criteria related to environmental impact, used as either qualifier or order-winner depending on the interviewed company. Regarding adoption of emission data as a purchasing criterion, several drivers; enablers; and barriers were identified. First, example of drivers were customers’ demand and internal management. Second, new technology was a mentioned enabler. Third, the lack of standardization was identified as a major barrier – which supports current initiatives to further develop emission standards, CountEmissions EU being one of these. Finally, to further progress the advancements made in this thesis future research is suggested to look at environmental purchasing criteria of SMEs and additional customer segments.