Organized by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the 12th Transportation and Communication Council was held at Istanbul Atatürk Airport this year. At the “Innovation, New Trends and Green Logistics Practices in Sustainable Logistics” session of the council, Serhat Kurtulus, General Manager of Arkas Logistics, has mentioned investments to lower the carbon footprint and added that Arkas Logistics has reduced its carbon emissions by 58 percent in the last 5 years.
The sessions of the council, the main theme of which was “Logistics – Mobility – Digitalization”, have been identified in line with the vision of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure regarding the Turkish Transport Policy. Having attended the session “Innovation, New Trends and Green Logistics Practices in Sustainable Logistics” that was held on the second day of the three-day event, Serhat Kurtulus, General Manager of Arkas Logistics, has delivered a speech on Arkas Logistics’ contributions to green and sustainable logistics, and its future plans. After explaining the company’s vision in the field of carbon neutral and clean logistics, as well as how all the green projects, conducted so far, have led to the reduction of carbon emissions, Kurtulus stated that Arkas Logistics has started to implement green and clean logistics step by step.
Thanks to its logistics infrastructure and strategic location, Turkey will have a significant competitive advantage in the future among European companies that want to reduce their carbon footprint, Kurtulus said. According to him, Arkas Logistics has invested in trucks, which comply with the Euro 6 standard, for road transportation and, thus, carbon emissions have decreased by 58 percent despite the 22 percent increase in kilometers which have been covered on the road in total in the last 5 years.
Serhat Kurtulus, General Manager of Arkas Logistics, said: “The sea-rail combined transport mode within multimodal transport is the optimal solution to lower the carbon footprint. Within the scope of our Anatolian Logistics project that was launched 20 years ago under the leadership of Mr. Lucien Arkas, we have purchased more than 700 wagons so far. While we send export cargoes to ports via our various rail container terminals across Turkey, we also deliver import cargoes to our importers by railway. According to our calculations, 67 percent less carbon is emitted in an exemplary multimodal transport that includes sea-rail transport from Turkey to Germany, compared to a transport from China with the same modes. This statistic proves that companies, which want to reduce their carbon footprint to comply with the European Green Deal, prefer Turkey more often due to its strategic location. With its advantageous logistics infrastructure and geographical location, our country will be able to use its sustainable and green logistics practices as further sales arguments in the future.”
