Today I was driving home and I noticed this logo on the back of a truck. Then a little while later, I saw the same logo on another truck. It says “Objectif CO2” which, as you would expect, translates to “Objective CO2”.
Objectif CO2
It turns out that Objectif CO2 is the result of cooperation between French government departments and road freight transport organizations. Their website is;
which is all in French, but they do have a link at the bottom left for English presentations and files. You can find three of the most interesting English versions of these files at the bottom of this page, if your interested.
What is the objective?
Objectif CO2 encourages transport companies to sign-up voluntarily and specify their own 3-year plan to reduce CO2 emissions. This plan is loaded online and the companies commit to share their measured metrics publicly via the website. The CO2 reduction plans are intended to focus around the effects of the vehicle, fuel, the driver and the organization of transport flows.
In the file below with “QuickPresentation” in the title, you can see many of the suggestions for reducing CO2 emissions. These all seem good, except for the one “Alernative fuel (Biodiesel 30)” which worries me a little. This is most probably 30% rapeseed oil and is one of the reasons there are so many yellow fields of GMO rapeseed crops in France all being sprayed with enormous amounts of pesticides (see Rapeseed invasion and monocultures). I’m not sure what’s worse, CO2 emissions or GMO monocultures and pesticides.
An initiative worth supporting- Objectif CO2
The good news (and the bad news) is that 20% of the French fleet is now committed to Objectif CO2. It’s great to see that 20% of road transport companies have voluntarily signed up to Objectif CO2, but it’s also a bit disappointing that all of them aren’t involved.
Such initiatives as Objectif CO2 must be applauded and deserve our support. I’d like to support companies that are involved and try to avoid ones that aren’t. The public can make a difference if we’re aware of these things.
I hope initiatives like Objectif CO2 exist in most countries around the world. Is anyone aware of similar initiatives elsewhere?
What can we do personally?
I’m trying to avoid falling for the trap of thinking that excessive CO2 emissions is a problem caused by other people and companies. The lifestyle that I like to enjoy consumes too much fuel and requires too much emission of CO2. Personally, I’m trying to reduce my usage of fuel by 10%, see this post – Can I reduce fuel consumption by 10% ?. This shouldn’t be too hard and if everyone could do this, it would have a significant positive impact on the planet.
Actually, the trucks on which I saw this logo were both from a company called Vallée Transports – http://www.vallee-logistique.fr. Maybe this is a sign suggesting this is a good company to support.