Reducing greenhouse gas emissions has become an urgent issue across industries. In addition to direct GHG emissions themselves (Scope 1) and emissions from the use of energy supplied by other companies (Scope 2), companies are also required to reduce emissions throughout the entire supply chain, including other indirect emissions (Scope 3). Mitsubishi Logistics developed the "Emission Monitoring/Cargo Route Finder" and released it in February 2024 to meet such reduction requirement. We interviewed Mr. Naoki Yamaguchi, Manager of the Planning & Development Team, International Transportation Division, Mitsubishi Logistics Corporation, and Mr. Seito Tamura of the Planning & Development Team, who were involved in its development.

The "Emission Monitoring/Cargo Route Finder" enables easy calculation of greenhouse gas emitted by cargo transportation. Mr. Yamaguchi, one of its creators, explains the background that led to the development.

"Beyond cargo transportation, DX has advanced in various industries, and the customer needs, business environment, and industry players are also expected to change significantly. It is important to respond to these changes proactively," says Yamaguchi. " Our goal is to contribute to optimizing our customers' supply chain management, and DX is essential for us to achieve sustainable growth with our customers.
This led to us launching the digital platform-building project in April 2022.
Through DX, we will improve operational efficiency and strengthen services. Among various systemization projects we plan to pursue, we decided to develop this tool ahead of others to support customers’ efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which has been a growing concern in recent years."

“Emission Monitoring/Cargo Route Finder" supports multiple modes of transportation, including ocean, air, rail, and truck transportation. By entering the origin, destination, and quantity of goods on the search screen, the system selects candidate transportation routes from among a vast number of combinations of transportation modes and routes using a variety of big data that include the schedules of vessels, aircraft, railroads, domestic vessels, barges, and ferries. The candidate routes are then evaluated from different angles, and the top-scoring transportation routes are displayed for further evaluation and comparison based on the transit time, distance, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.
(A patent for the route search engine was granted in December 2023.)

Tamura says, "While emissions were previously typically calculated based on a single route, we now consider various routes and modes of transportation. The tool functions as a route finder. For example, in the U.S., we can study and compare a route that unloads at East Coast ports and a route that unloads at West Coast ports. Another important feature is that it calculates and displays realistic routes by periodically refreshing data on actual vessel, aircraft, and railroad schedules to avoid generating unrealistic suggestions."

In addition to visualizing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, the creators of the tool were committed in realizing the best route search function. They utilized Amazon Web Services (AWS), a pioneer in big data processing, AI, and machine learning, in its development.

The development of "Emission Monitoring/Cargo Route Finder" started in January 2023. Its release in February 2024 was widely reported in the industry press because of its groundbreaking nature. There are plans to introduce more functions and updates to make it even more attractive.

"We are considering taking advantage of features unique to AI, such as calculating a customer's comprehensive GHG emissions based on the past transport data to offer multiple route options in the order of the customer’s level of interest," says Yamaguchi. "Additionally, we want to improve the customer experience by linking it to other functions of the digital platform for a smooth transaction from the route displays to other phases such as obtaining estimates and making reservations."

Under the Management Plan since FY2022, Mitsubishi Logistics is strengthening its international transportation business to lead future growth, aiming to achieve a ratio of overseas sales of over 20%. The company's International Transportation Division excels in international multimodal transportation, which combines multiple means of transportation, such as ocean, air, rail, and truck, to enable door-to-door cargo transportation. In addition, it provides one-stop logistics services, including land transportation and cargo storage at the origin and destination.

"Because of our company’s name,* many people are unaware that Mitsubishi Logistics is involved in international transportation," says Yamaguchi. "I want people to know that Mitsubishi Logistics provides international transportation services and is developing new cutting-edge tools such as this one. We will continue to improve our services utilizing our experience and know-how, offering safe, reliable, high-quality, and flexible options to meet the diverse transportation needs of our customers."

(*The direct translation of the Japanese name of the company means “Mitsubishi Warehouses.”)