Winning Tenders: How Reliable Carbon Data Secures New Business

The Bottleneck of Manual Reporting

For many freight forwarders, managing emissions data has historically been a retrospective, compliance-heavy exercise. The traditional workflow is reactive and inefficient.

When a shipper requests emissions data, the operations team often scrambles to collate information from disparate systems. They rely on manual calculations or generic average emission factors that fail to account for specific routing, vessel efficiency, or fuel types.

This approach creates two major risks. Firstly, it is slow; manually calculating emissions for hundreds of shipments consumes valuable hours that could be spent on revenue-generating activities. Secondly, the data is often inaccurate. Shippers looking to meet Science Based Targets (SBTi) cannot rely on vague estimates. If your data lacks credibility, your tender response loses its competitive edge.

The Tender Turning Point

Consider a typical scenario: your sales team identifies a high-value tender for a multinational retailer. The RFP requires not just a price, but a detailed breakdown of projected CO₂e emissions for key trade lanes, calculated in accordance with the GLEC Framework and ISO 14083.

In the old way of working, this requirement triggers internal friction. Sales chases operations; operations chases carriers. The resulting data is often a patchwork of estimates delivered at the eleventh hour.

This is the turning point where contracts are won or lost. Shippers are increasingly sophisticated; they can spot the difference between a forwarder who treats carbon as a core operational metric and one who treats it as an afterthought.

Embedding Carbon into Commercial Workflows

The most successful forwarders are moving away from retrospective reporting and embedding carbon intelligence directly into their commercial infrastructure.

By integrating automated emissions calculations into platforms like the Magaya Digital Freight Platform, sustainability becomes part of the everyday workflow. Emissions are calculated instantly as quotes are generated, bookings are made, and routes are planned.

This ‘new way’ ensures that carbon data is:

• Granular: Based on specific shipment data (vessel information, actual distances, truck characteristics, fuel types, road conditions) rather than industry averages.
• Standardised: Fully compliant with the GLEC Framework and ISO 14083, ensuring the data stands up to external audit
• Proactive: Available at the quoting stage, allowing forwarders to offer ‘green’ alternatives alongside standard options
• Automated: Generated automatically within core workflows, removing manual effort and ensuring emissions data is always available at quote, booking, and planning stages
• Transparent: Fully traceable and auditable, with clear methodologies and inputs that give shippers confidence in how emissions figures are calculated

Unlocking Value for Customers

When freight forwarders automate their carbon reporting, they unlock significant commercial value. It shifts the conversation from a transactional negotiation on price to a strategic partnership on value.

1. Confident Tender Responses

With automated data, you can respond to complex RFPs faster and with greater confidence. You can demonstrate exactly how your routing choices contribute to the shipper’s reduction targets.

2. Consultative Selling

Instead of simply moving goods, you become a decarbonisation advisor. You can proactively show a customer: “If we route this shipment via Rail instead of Road, or choose this specific carrier, we can reduce your Scope 3 emissions by 20%.”

3. Operational Efficiency

By eliminating manual data entry, your teams save countless hours. The friction between sustainability requirements and operational speed disappears.

Real-World Impact: The LVO Example

The shift is already happening. International freight forwarder LVO (Léon Vincent Overseas) recently implemented the Lune integration within their Magaya platform to address this exact challenge.

As Michaël Varriot, Directeur Général Adjoint at LVO, noted: “More and more of our shippers expect transparent emissions data in every quote. The Lune integration gives us that insight instantly within Magaya, helping us meet customer expectations, compete in tenders, and operate with purpose.”

This is the practical reality of modern logistics: innovation and responsibility working hand-in-hand to drive commercial growth.

The Future of Freight Forwarding

Looking ahead, the gap between forwarders who can provide granular carbon data and those who cannot will widen. As carbon pricing mechanisms evolve and regulations tighten, the financial implications of emissions will only grow.

Freight forwarders that succeed will be those that treat carbon data as essential infrastructure — as vital as their customs filings or tracking updates. By embedding reliable, ISO-compliant data into their daily operations, forwarders can turn a regulatory burden into a powerful competitive advantage.

To win the tenders of tomorrow, you must start measuring what matters today.