USA: Norfolk Southern has launched RailGreen, offering freight shippers verified certification of supply chain emissions reduction through the use of biofuels for carbon insetting.
Insetting directly reduces emissions by funding sustainable fuel initiatives, in contrast to carbon offsets which reduce emissions outside of a company’s operations, often through unrelated projects like reforestation.
Customers can contract with NS to participate in RailGreen. NS then acquires biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its locomotives, with usage certified by a third party to generate RailGreen certificates.
The certificates verify the chain of custody across fuel providers, rail carriers, freight forwarders and cargo owners. The process uses 123Carbon’s blockchain-backed Environmental Attribute Certificates to certify that each tonne of reduced CO2e is uniquely tracked to prevent double-counting.
