Transnet app calculates carbon savings

The state-owned company developed the app in collaboration with the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), based at Wits University. Its primary purpose is to enable Transnet customers to calculate the carbon emissions benefit of electing to move specific tonnages of cargo in South Africa by rail instead of road.

Available on iOS, Windows and Android devices, the free calculator app applies the relevant rail tractive power (electric or diesel) of each route, and users can select a specific origin and destination, the commodity type and its weight to calculate the carbon footprint of tonnage.

Transnet says the app could be particularly useful for corporate reporting on transport carbon emissions.

As the owner and operator of the country’s rail network, Transnet has undertaken to increase its market share of freight movement by promoting a modal shift from road to rail and will report annually on the associated carbon emission savings.

This development comes as South Africa is set to introduce a carbon tax in 2016, in an attempt to account for the environmental cost of greenhouse gas emissions and incentivise the use of cleaner energy sources. The proposed carbon tax rate is currently R120 (US$9.30) a metric tonne of CO2 equivalent, to be levied by government on the use of fossil fuels.