Ikigai joins Coca-Cola consortium to decarbonise transport

Coca-Cola HBC (CCHBC) Italia has announced a consortium of its main hauliers alongside London-based energy transition advisor Ikigai Capital and green energy development company NVA.

Hauliers involved in the consortium include Italtrans, Number1, Casilli Enterprise and Favaro Servizi.

They will be working alongside Ikigai and NVA with the aim to decarbonise CCHBC’s road transport operations as part of their 2040 net zero objective.

The ultimate goal is to create a net zero transport procurement, investment and implementation project for vehicles, fuels and related infrastructure.

Manuel Biella, CCHBC director of Italian supply chain, stated: “We recognise the enormous challenges to achieve net zero emissions in the road transport sector, but we also know that the change is needed now and we want to be leading the way.

“That’s why Coca-Cola HBC Italia is committed to supporting this…decarbonisation journey and invest resources to lead the way and become an example for a sustainable logistics sector.”

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A hard to abate area

The first phase of the project will entail a feasibility study to understand the dynamics of road transport for CCHBC.

A net-zero aligned alternative solution will be created, including an upstream and downstream infrastructure ecosystem to decarbonise what Ikigai refers to as a ‘hard to abate area’ for CCHBC. Heavy-duty road transport is one of the said sectors.

Carbon offsetting is under growing scrutiny as it should be only used as last resort to offset those areas that cannot be decarbonised.

Other challenges that are making this sector one of the hardest to decarbonise include vehicle and fuel availability and cost as well as a downstream infrastructure network to support the refuelling of vehicles.

Ikigai will, together with NVA, deliver a pilot project in the next phases that will include the creation of multi-fuel hubs for the supply of green fuels.

Inclusive of electricity, biomethane and hydrogen, this will create the ecosystem for the supply of zero-emissions/low carbon vehicles.

Stakeholder engagement

According to Ikigai, stakeholder engagement is key given the number of challenges to decarbonise the road transport sector.

All parties involved - demand, supply, technology providers, funders and government entities - will need to work jointly to create a critical mass on the demand side, the appropriate technical solutions as well as the financial support and incentives to deliver the energy transition.

Roberto Castiglioni, co-founder and CEO of Ikigai Capital, added, “we don’t believe there is a silver bullet to decarbonise the transport sector; we believe we need a silver bucket; different solutions for different applications.

“That’s why we believe multi-fuel hubs are the answer and we are eager to export our ideas to Italy…It’s all about understanding the real-life challenges through data analysis, having a holistic and technology-agnostic approach, while delivering value to all of the project stakeholders.”

The consortium comes in as the latest initiative to accelerate low carbon transportation within the EU.

It further forms part of CCHBC's NETZero by 40 strategy, the company's plan announced in 2021, which details how they aim to minimise their emissions by 2040.