This booklet, from the European Commission on the Environment, offers five approaches to the adoption of environmental concerns in freight transport. All are examples of "win-win" outcomes where benefits to the environment are either equaled or exceeded by benefits to the company itself. All approaches can be implemented by small and medium-size enterprises as well as by national and multinational operations. The approaches are more likely to succeed when set within the framework of an environmental management system, such as EMAS or ISO 14001. The five approaches include:

• Reducing the impact of each mode of transportation through cleaner engines, cleaner fuels, new fuels, and -- in the case of road freight -- energy-efficient truck design.
  
  
• Switching to environmentally preferable modes of transport, such as relying on rail, coastal shipping, or waterways, in whole or in combination with road transport.
  
  
• Reducing the actual number of vehicles running, vehicle kilometers, and ton-kilometers by increasing load factors, improving routing, utilizing new information technology to maximize backloading, consolidating deliveries, and sharing loads with other companies.

Additional approaches focus on driver training and behavior and city logistics.

An online version allows users to click on individual approaches using a table of contents. The site also allows users to download the booklet in a handful of European languages. Download it in English below.