Queensland-based heavy vehicle manufacturer GLT, formerly known as Lusty Trailers, has flagged a 94 per cent reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions from its manufacturing process in its bid to rapidly move towards industrial decarbonisation.
Queensland government’s manufacturing hub was a big part of the story.
With two decades of experience in engineering and manufacturing, chief executive Shay Chalmers has been driving GLT full speed towards her unexpected passion for sustainability and decarbonisation since she took on the role 16 months ago.
In an interview with The Fifth Estate, Chalmers says that moving to an industrial warehouse that was better suited to the company’s ESG aspiration was key in its massive reductions.
How industrial sheds played a big role in decarbonising GLT
A recent report by JLL and an interview with industrial property owners have revealed that landlords are now picking and choosing tenants who have aligned carbon reduction targets, ESG aspirations and sustainability credentials due to a shortage of sustainable industrial sheds.
Chalmers echoed this trend, saying that tenants, such as her own company, are also desperately searching for industrial facilities that can support their decarbonisation dreams.
The manufacturer had recently moved its headquarters to Carole Park in Ipswich, Queensland, an opportunity Chalmers has taken full advantage of.
Chalmers says that a carbon assessment and benchmarking exercise had revealed that the company was spending around $120,000 a year on diesel heating to power the manufacturing process of their trailers.
“In our old shed, we couldn’t do anything about the diesel; we couldn’t do anything about the electricity. The roof wasn’t designed to be able to hold solar, so we were trapped, and we could do little to actually change it,” says Chalmers.
Thanks to the move, the manufacturer transitioned from diesel-powered heating towards electricity-powered heating, reducing the cost spent on fossil fuel to $2000 a year. According to the estimate benchmark, the company’s emissions of 151 tonnes of CO2 equivalent on heating every year will be reduced to 5 tonnes of CO2-e, a number which was consistent with the first two months since the upgrade.
While GLT had spent between $10,000 to $20,000 on lifecycle analysis, Chalmers said the cost would have commercial benefits with a three-year return on investment on business consumption. The returns include the cost of decarbonisation and the installation of new facilities, such as wastewater treatment.
Chalmers says that she looked into the design specifications of the warehouse to ensure the roof structure was designed to support the maximum number of solar panels before making the decision.
With an 11 year lease secured, she now has her eyes on the company plans to accelerate its rooftop solar installation over the next six to 12 months. While estimated to cost around $700,000, it will have immediate commercial benefits, she said
Other methods of decarbonising the fleet
According to Chalmers, employing circular economy principles and expanding product lifespan was key to decarbonising the company’s operations and products. This has involved research and new technology to extend the lifespan of a trailer by five years, which “exponentially reduces the carbon footprint over the life of the trailer.”
“For us, it’s such a large thing; it’s steel and aluminium. If [the process] is not electrified, how do we extend that lifespan?”
The answer was the weight of the vehicle.
“The power for us is that we can design these products to reduce the carbon footprint over their life by reducing weight and the number of trips for our customers.
“We can also place pressure on the supply to chain to say, ‘Well, what does this look like for me to get low carbon aluminium’ so then we can start pushing our suppliers to say, ‘My expectation is that you’re electrifying your process and then delivering me a product that has been manufactured using renewable energy – like green aluminium or green steel’.
“As a manufacturer, we have a process, we have a product, we’ve got so much leverage to make a positive difference.”
The Queensland government is leading the charge on manufacturers
Regarding funding and support, Chalmers said the company couldn’t have done it without the support of the Queensland government’s manufacturing hub.
The government took a step forward in 2022, launching its Queensland Advanced Manufacturing 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan, which reported helping more than 388 businesses measure their operational performance since 2017.
Amongst many others, it also launched regional manufacturing hubs in big cities around the state, which offered support, technology and grants programs. The plan reported that 37 projects had been approved to receive grants totalling $10.9 million.
Chalmers said GLT took advantage of offerings by the hub, which was created to help manufacturers reach carbon neutrality. It appointed the Brisbane-based Ecoefficiency Group to measure its operational and embodied carbon footprint and its product’s life cycle analysis.
“If you can get the manufacturers to decarbonise, then it has all these flow on impacts throughout the supply chain,” Chalmer says. “I think it’s a brilliant strategy.”
She adds that manufacturing businesses will have no choice but to implement green strategies as energy challenges worsen and client demands for ESG grow.
Who are the clients?
The Australian transport industry is one of the nation’s third largest emitters of carbon emissions, and emission numbers are expected to be at their highest by 2030 – meaning that companies are now looking closely to decarbonise transportation used in their supply chain.
Chalmers’ push to save money and go green did not go unnoticed as clients such as packaging recycling giants VISY and e-waste collectors RCube eagerly supported the manufacturer’s plans.
At the time of the interview, Chalmer had also closed a partnership with National Transport Insurance Limited (NTI), an insurance provider jointly owned by Suncorp and the CGU insurance group, confirming that both were aligned in the push for sustainability in the industry.
This included agreeing on ways the company could help decarbonise the supply chain by expanding a trailer’s lifespan.
“They have the same vision. They want to reduce their whole of life carbon footprint for the products that they insure,” Chalmers says.
Other clients include small and large agricultural customers, many of which were supported by similar decarbonisation strategies and funding by the Queensland government to decarbonise the agricultural sector.
“We make about 250 trailers a year, so we probably service about 100 customers yearly,” Chalmers says.
“We’ve expanded our repairs and services part of the business, so that enables us to be able to extend our product lifespan.”
The company now has a big repair business handling roughly a trailer a day or about 250 new customers a year.
On top of agriculture, other client bases included mining, waste, construction, major logistics and transportation, and multinational companies.
Chalmers was also recently appointed to the newly launching Institute for Industrial Decarbonisation industry committee at the University of New South Wales, which supports her agenda of encouraging more manufacturers to take on decarbonisation.
She says the establishment of the group gives her hope for the future. “Those kinds of cross-collaborative groups are really, really positive and optimistic.
“It gives us an opportunity to contribute, but also to learn from other industries, so we can all learn and grow together and do so in conjunction with our researchers, so t if we do have technical barriers or technical gaps, we can start to plug those holes.
“I’m optimistic seeing these kinds of initiatives on a national level, with industry coming together and working with researchers to try and solve the problem as well; I think there’s a lot of good people trying to make this happen.”