Green Solutions that Spark Growth

0:05
Welcome to another episode of our Unitrans podcast. Today, we want to have a conversation about sustainability, innovation, and the future of green transport in Africa. Sustainability in logistics has become an increasingly important consideration for long term resilience and competitiveness.

0:24
Today, we have Liesl de Wet, who heads up Sustainability at Unitrans.
Welcome, Liesl.

0:29
Thank you so much. Excited to be here.

0:31
Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us.

0:33
Please tell us a little bit about what your role entails. And we look forward to discussing how energy efficiency, electrification, readiness, and green transports are shaping and evolving approaches to transport performance across Africa.

0:47
Fantastic. My name is Liesl De Wet and I head up sustainability for Unitrans. Our role is to ensure that we embed our sustainability projects from the business, that we are aligned to all the corporate reporting requirements that we need and that sustainability and energy efficiency becomes embedded in the way we do business, our operational excellence.

1:08
And I’m happy to say that we’ve received great feedback from the business. People are really wanting to make a difference. And it’s exciting and a privilege for me to help guide that and encourage and inspire the activities moving forward in this space.

1:23
Now when it comes to sustainability, we know it’s often spoken about in broad terms. From a transport perspective, what does green solutions mean in practice?

1:35
Green solutions are around sustainable transport potential or in terms of let’s reduce our environmental impact. How do we move goods, how do we complete our sustainable supply chain activities that we reduce our impact on the environment.

1:51
You often hear the adage of people, planet, profit. I think that’s the old way of seeing sustainability. It’s how do we remain a profitable business, and we balance the demands of the environmental and economic so that everybody wins and we leave the planet in a better position than what we have currently.

2:09
And it is challenging, but it’s also exciting. There’s so many new technologies that are coming to the fore, which we’ll touch on a bit later, but such as electrification, we’ve got alternative fuels for transportation, biodiesel and new developments on the horizon such as hydrogen fuel cells for trucks. And that’s exciting.

2:31
But it’s also the small incremental changes that make a difference, such as your driver training, what we’re doing in the warehousing. With supply chain logistics, we operate in an environment of multiple interdependencies and how do we get all of these to work in an operational excellence perspective that improves our footprints and still promotes productivity.

2:54
Now you read my mind when it comes to electrification. Now electric buses and alternative technologies are increasingly being explored. What conditions need to be in place for electrification to be viable in African transport solutions?

3:07
I am excited to see how electrification in the transport industry is really taking shape. And what we’ve noticed is that your medium, your last mile delivery, the smaller sort of micro grids in terms of scooters and that which are quite a big element in Africa.

3:25
And then also your public transport, your buses are another very important prime area for first time electrification of EV vehicles. And what we’re noticing is grid infrastructure is critical.

3:38
In Africa, we or Africa, South Africa, we have range anxiety because we have these long distances to cover and it’s a very real thing. And we need to make sure from a logistics perspective, that we know where the charging stations are for us to deliver the products which we need to do for our clients.

3:55
Grid infrastructure, critical, then people always joke and say what, you can’t make a delivery because of load shedding potentially in South Africa. What do you do there?

4:03
We have a great solar potential in South Africa, in Africa as well. How do we look at bringing in renewable electricity in to charge our vehicles, etc. It’s exciting to see the developments. The EV market is growing at a record rate. It’s becoming a lot easier to deploy in fleets etc.

4:28
But there are still a few challenges that we need to look at and be cognisant of and a lot of those is commercialisation.

4:35
It’s a mass uptake. It’s also around charging infrastructure and legislation. You can’t really run heavy duty big vehicles as EV vehicles yet because it makes them extra-long and heavier according to legislation. That needs to be looked at.

4:51
But the ring fence around your public transport and your last mile delivery and even the micro grids. We’ve seen a lot of exciting projects coming through there and that’s a great space to be in.

5:02
It’s interesting that you speak about now how ready we are for these kinds of things. What kind of readiness factor from a practical perspective would you say matters most before operators can adopt these green solutions?

5:14
Electricity supply is massive. You want to be able to charge your vehicles.

5:18
Turnaround time of the charging of the vehicles is also important because you can’t have a vehicle charging for 24 / 48 hours or however long. And now thankfully, with the advent of technology, you’re getting MW charges coming into play now, which can charge vehicles a lot quicker than before. So, that’s a big advantage.

5:36
But they do require electricity, right? And you need stable electricity.

And ideally you would like renewable electricity, not grid electricity, to reap the benefits of the savings.

5:47
A charging network, reliable electricity supply and new technology vehicles do come at a cost premium. And there needs to be innovation around financing models. How do you finance this transition? That is one of the tricky things.

6:02
Supply chains are a cost-competitive element for most clients, and it takes long term investment. There’s a lot of interesting finance being done in terms of leasing opportunities, battery swap outs technologies that you can do. There are things coming on the horizon, but currently they are quite pricey to launch mainstream.

6:26
How long do you think it will take till we get to the perfect scenario?

6:29
Not long. I reckon about five years max. We’re ready. There’s a lot of work currently being done and I feel that it’s heading in the right direction.

6:39
Well, that’s good to hear. But now beyond electrification, where can energy efficiency and smarter fleet design deliver measurable environmental and operational improvements? What would you say?

6:51
I’m so glad you asked this question because I’m a big proponent of saying it’s the small impacts that make a massive difference, collectively.

6:59
Things like training a driver. You can put a driver in the most fuel-efficient vehicle, but if he’s not trained correctly to drive it in that manner, you’re not going to get the savings that you need. Our drivers are important. Training our drivers is really, really important.

7:14
Then another thing is simple things like matching the correct load with the correct configuration in terms of your vehicle. Very important, load optimisation, route optimisation. We have a large amount of vehicle telematics and technology that we can deploy in our vehicles. Drive Cam, we’ve got telematics that tell you exactly, real time, the fuel burned of your vehicle.

7:37
There’s a lot of information, but what do you do with that information to make it real?

7:41
You need to distil it into business data analytics that can be managed real time. And we’ve seen quite a lot of savings done just by managing real time, per truck, per trip what is happening. And that’s very powerful and it’s a tool that anyone can really deploy and use. And you get savings out of that. We’ve seen savings out of that.

8:02
And then on the warehousing side, you’re also looking at renewable energy, solar, that kind of thing. It’s great to also get off the grid there. There’s a lot of opportunities here in terms of the small wins that lead to big solutions.

8:17
And also, bearing in mind, OEMs are manufacturing diesel vehicles that are a lot more efficient than the older models, where we start looking at year fours, fives, sixes. So, there’s a lot more energy efficient vehicles coming through in the market.

8:31
It’s also quite interesting when you speak about the drivers and the operators. Now, how important would you say collaboration between operators, partners, and infrastructure providers in making green transport solutions workable and sustainable over time? How important would that be?

8:46
It’s critical. We don’t live in isolation, right? We’re living in this massive ecosystem where we need to work together to achieve success in this space. And collaboration is a word that is used so often, it’s become a bit of a buzz word at the time. But what does true collaboration really mean?

9:03
It means working with your clients to deploy these kinds of technologies at scale. Only then are you going to see the savings and make a massive difference.

9:12
And it’s exciting because collaboration brings all different parties to the table.

You’re talking associations, you’re talking government, you’re talking fellow companies that you work with, your clients.

9:24
I mean, a very strong client collaboration is critical in terms of getting success in this space.

9:32
Now, looking at the evolution of how the transport system is evolving over time as this evolution keeps on happening, what indicators would you say suggest sustainability efforts that are delivering real practical value for you?

9:45
I’ve been in the sustainable supply chain space since 2009, which is quite a long time. I have the advantage of seeing it evolve over a period of time and I’m excited to see where we go.

9:59
It’s exciting because EVs used to be not very well considered. They were just starting and now they’re becoming mainstream. All the major manufacturers have strong models to deploy.

10:11
Then we’re also looking at technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, which is also coming down the track. And there are testing vehicles. About two years ago, I was at a conference, and I spoke to panellists and we were talking about hydrogen vehicles. And we were like: “Is this going to be a thing?”

10:27
And the guy looked at me like, “Of course, we’re testing vehicles!” And I’ve seen it first hand, that they are testing vehicles. So, that’s exciting on the technology side of things.

10:43
Closer to Unitrans, we are deploying some electric buses in our fleet. We’ve delivered ten electric buses to operations in Zanzibar, which we’re really excited about. And the government’s really proactive and supporting the initiative.

10:54
And then we also have a warehousing collaboration in Durban where we’ve got solar panels, we’ve got electric forklifts and we, our team did a very detailed study in terms of diesel versus electric power, what the solutions are and it really came up tops with that and they’re running really efficient solutions there.

11:14
There’s a lot of practical, on the ground, solutions that we are running, but of course these need to be implemented at scale to make a difference, to achieve what we need to achieve for the planet moving forward.

11:25
And now speaking about moving forward, what does the future of green transport look like for you?

11:30
I’m so excited about the future of green transport. I think opportunities, innovation, you know, the transport industry is really used to dealing in environments that are pretty chaotic.

11:43
You’ve got to deliver in sometimes challenging circumstances and the resilience and adaptability to be able to do that is really going to be a cornerstone of success in the future moving forward because we are heading into a time of unpredicted climate.

11:59
We are heading into that phase now where risk on is going to be key and centre stage because this is what the climatic models have been predicting for a while and we’re seeing it. We’ve had these massive rainstorms in Mpumalanga and Limpopo area. In Gauteng, which really has damaged infrastructure, roads, support networks, that kind of thing. And highly navigate that is going to be an interesting point and it’s going to determine how you manage the future moving forward.

12:32
That adaptability, the resilience, the sustainability, and that is why sustainability, it’s not just about putting trees, that some people think it is.

12:41
This is a real business driver. It’s an imperative. And if you get it right, you’re going to be successful moving forward. And then we can have this conversation in the next 20 years and say, looking back, how did we do.

12:52
Now looking at South Africa, do you think that we are ready at the end of the day? Because like you say, there’s a few people who say power this and power that. What do you think?

13:02
Africa has huge solar potential, and we’ve also got a lot of potential in the hydrogen space as well. I think we’re very well placed.

13:12
We’ve got great legislation. We have the Presidential Climate Change Commission where people are looking at models all the time in terms of advising businesses how do we transition.

13:22
There still is a lot of work that needs to be done, but I’m excited. There is a lot of opportunity and innovation in this space, and we are well placed to capitalise on it and to move forward with it to make a real change.

13:38
I see a lot more EVs coming through, a lot more micro grids coming through. All these bikes that are delivering, they’re going to be electric, potentially hydrogen in the future for sure.

13:49
Charging stations, grid infrastructure, which is different to just a garage on the side of the road. We can just see them evolve into little ecosystems where there’ll be a lot of opportunities there. I think, we are well placed.

14:04
We do need to work together though. There’s a lot of stakeholders here that need to work together with the same goal in mind for it to be enacted and implemented.

14:14
On working together, what would your final thoughts be when it comes to green transport and how things can work out in a perfect roll out way?

14:20
In a perfect roll out way. I was very spoiled a few years ago. I got to do a research hydrogen tour in Europe, in Germany, and they really are very committed to sustainability. You walk around there; you see cars being charged on the side of the road. They have a charging station that has charging infrastructure, biodiesel, hydrogen, biogas, all the opportunities available to you.

14:46
We have great minds in South Africa. We have great collaboration opportunities with our clients, with our staff, with our employees, with our drivers. And it’s to take the passion of where we need to be and what we need to do, the purpose behind what we need to achieve and directed into something that’s real, that’s tangible and makes a solid difference at the end of the day. And that we can do that.

15:12
You really can do that. I love hearing the passion each time I interview more members who work at Unitrans, the one thing that you guys exude is passion. And I must really say that we appreciate it because we see that you guys really love what you do. And I can see that you love what you do.

15:27
Thank you so much. I really do, yes. And it’s great to work in an organisation that is supportive of this important agenda item.

15:36
Well, that’s great to hear. That’s great to hear.

15:38
Well, there you have it, ladies, and gentlemen. Through this episode we’ve learnt that sustainability and operational performance are often interconnected. Thank you so much, Liesel, for sharing your practical insights on how green innovation is being approached realistically and responsibly. You’ve helped us see that progress comes from collaboration, readiness, and thoughtful innovation.