The technology needed to meet pending SEC climate disclosure rules on emissions is not want-to-have but is must-have, says Josh Bouk, president of Trax Technologies.

Virtually everybody in the transportation industry knows that SEC climate disclosure rules on emissions are pending, but many are unclear what the impact on the industry will be and what they need to do to prepare. In 2025, enterprise shippers must report, as part of their financial disclosures, their emissions for Scope 1 through Scope 3 sources, Bouk says. “The challenge with Scope 3 is that it's very difficult to get that data from all of their vendors around the world, ” he says. “That’s why shippers must get a jump on things now. The 2025 reporting will deal with emissions in 2024. Shippers need a way to collect the necessary data in 2023.”

Easier said than done, Bouk notes. “To calculate emissions really accurately, you have to have a lot of different data points. You have to know the vehicle type and its fuel type. You have to know exactly where it went and how long it was there and where it got stuck. You have to know how heavy it is, and what it's carrying. Getting that from hundreds of different vendors around the world is a very difficult proposition for most enterprise shippers.”

There is no one-size-fits-all approach, Bouk says. “There's no one source where you can go and get that emissions data. So,every company in the world should be trying to figure out right now exactly how they're going to go about collecting that data. A lot of companies have ESG [environmental, social and governance] programs that are already trying to solve this problem because it's part of their investor communications. It's part of the communications of their brand, but now it's a requirement, so there's no option anymore.”