Over the last ten years or so worries about the environment and fear of global warming has entered the mainstream. Green issues are at the top of the political agenda and no longer solely the concern of 'tree huggers'. This is of course largely because the fact of climate change is no longer up for debate. Most scientists now agree that pollution is causing temperatures to behave more erratically that the future of the planet is under threat.

We have seen politicians jumping on the 'green bandwagon' and environmental issues making their way into the statute books. The freight forwarding industry is therefore also rightly coming under pressure to reduce the level of pollution it emits and to adopt more environmentally friendly practices.

Indeed, a recent report published by the Scottish Parliament's Local Government and Transport Committee highlighted the need to make transportation greener. It showed that the way cargo is transported in and around Scotland is really not very green at all. This is partly because of the dominance of the roads as a way of moving freight. In fact road transportation accounts for around 70% of all forwarding. The report said that this must change in favour of more environmentally friendly transportation methods.

Rail forwarding is one way that the report suggested taking the emphasis off the roads. Another suggestion of how to reduce the impact of road transportation was to try and alleviate congestion by adding non-car lanes on major roads. Another idea voiced in the report was to permit freight companies that use trucks on forest roads to use red diesel. This fuel is used in refrigeration, domestic heating systems and agricultural equipment and is seen to be greener than other fuels.

Ultimately, the freight industry must look at what it is doing in all areas of its practises from types of transportation used, to fuel to route planning to make sure that it adopts a greener approach.