Raw materials transport to McDonald’s restaurants fueled by environmentally friendly biogas

From now on, raw materials transport to McDonald’s restaurants in Finland will be fueled by environmentally friendly renewable biogas. The distribution services provider for McDonald’s, HAVI Logistics has replaced half of its delivery fleet by biogas-fueled vehicles. The fleet powered by biogas helps reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by up to 355 tonnes.

The Nordic energy company Gasum and the restaurant chain McDonald’s are together promoting cleaner transport. Delivering the food raw materials to McDonald’s Finland restaurants, HAVI Logistics has introduced Scania delivery vehicles powered by renewable biogas this autumn.

“It’s really great to cooperate with partners such as HAVI that are investing in more environmentally friendly solutions. HAVI’s decision to use biogas-fueled vehicles in its deliveries also supports the sustainable development objectives of McDonalds and is an excellent example of how enterprises can reduce greenhouse gas emissions together with each other,” says Olli Johansson, Managing Director, McDonald’s Finland.

Biogas is a fully renewable and environmentally friendly source of energy produced from feedstocks including household biowaste, retail outlets’ food waste and municipal sewage sludge. Biogas production is an essential part of the circular economy where materials and raw materials are reused. The biogas-fueled delivery fleet will help McDonald’s and HAVI Logistics cut their annual carbon dioxide emissions by up to 355 tonnes. One ton of CO2 emissions equates approximately to driving a diesel-fueled estate car for 7,500 km – the distance from Helsinki to Paris and back.

“Reducing emissions is featuring increasingly among the targets adopted by enterprises, and logistics plays a key role in this. We want to continuously make more responsible decisions together with our customers and help them reach their environmental targets. The investments now made are a step in the right direction, and we’ll continue to invest in more environmentally friendly vehicles and fuels in our future procurement, too,” says Mikael Tuompo, Managing Director, HAVI Logistics.

Biogas helps achieve significant reductions in transport logistics emissions

Compressed biogas (CBG) is excellently suited for local distribution and lorries, and its transport use can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the fuel life cycle by up to 85%. Biogas use only generates a fraction of local emissions such as nitrogen oxide and fine particulate emissions. Transport emissions have sparked a lot of debate, and it is increasingly important to introduce environmentally friendly solutions in enterprise transport logistics.

“This truck delivery shows how four companies working in different industries can come together to promote sustainability. The gas engines in the vehicles delivered to HAVI run solely on biogas. This ensures as clean as possible exhaust gas emissions and very low particulate emissions. Scania’s gas-fueled vehicles have also proved to be reliable and economical in practice,” says Henna Wickström, managing director at Scania Suomi Oy.

“Cutting transport emissions plays a key role in action against climate change, and making responsible choices is more and more important these days for enterprises, their employees and consumers alike. It’s great that large companies such as McDonald’s Finland and HAVI Logistics want to invest in a cleaner tomorrow and choose a more environmentally friendly alternative,” says Ville Sipponen, Sales Manager, Traffic, Gasum.

Developing the road fuel gas market and promoting cleaner transport are key elements of the Gasum strategy. The company is taking determined steps to expand the gas filling station network in Finland and other Nordic countries. Gasum currently has 33 gas filling stations in Finland, of which seven also serve long-haul heavy-duty vehicles by offering liquefied natural gas (LNG) and biogas (LBG).


For more information please contact:


Ville Sipponen, Sales Manager, Traffic, Gasum
Phone: +358 40 081 8202, firstname.surname(a)gasum.com

Heli Ryhänen, Communications Director, McDonald’s Finland

Phone: +358 40 501 7179, firstname.surname(a)fi.mcd.com

Mikael Tuompo, Managing Director, HAVI Logistics Oy
Phone: +358 400 864 435, firstname.surname(a)havi.com

 


The energy company Gasum is a Nordic gas sector and energymarket expert. Together with its partners, Gasum is building a bridge towards a carbon-neutral society on land and at sea. www.gasum.com.