OMIT – Manual for environmental calculation of international freight transport
2 Introduction
OMIT is an easy-to-use tool for calculating the environmental load of international freight transport to and from Denmark by truck, train and ship.
Figure 2.
The four steps of the IT model.
As shown in figure 2, OMIT consists of four steps, in which it is possible to define the transport chain and the parameters of the transport modes. In the manual the two first steps will be covered together, whilst the two last steps and the preconditions for the calculations will be described individually for each transport mode. Finally there will be comments on the result sheets.
The results appear in an Excel spreadsheet. It is thus possible to continue to work with data or to use these in one's own material as documentation for transports performed.
The objective of this manual is to describe how the tool is used and to give examples of the options given to adjust the calculations.
It is not always obvious, exactly how a transport will be performed. Therefore the model has default values that represent a typical transport. The user must know, however, which transport modes are used, origin and destination of the goods, and the weight of the shipment. The more exact information is available about the transport, the more exact the results.
In OMIT the energy consumption and the emissions are allocated by the same principles as are normally used for invoicing the transports. Thus the environmental impact for ferry transport is allocated by length of the used mean of transport, on container ship by TEU (20’ container unit), for train and bulk carrier by ton and for truck by ton or m3, depending on whether the freight is heavy goods or voluminous goods.
OMIT being aimed at international transports, where either the origin or the destination is not Denmark, the program language is English. This enables the user to apply the results and share the calculations with partners in a foreign country.
The manual has been supplemented with elaborating comments, which are not required to know in order to use OMIT - this information is written in italics.