Egytrans Champions the Fight Against Global Warming in Egypt’s Transportation Industry

As a leading integrated transport and logistics company in Egypt, the Egyptian Transport and Commercial Services Company (Egytrans) recognizes its responsibility towards climate change and fighting global warming. 

For the company, Sustainable Development Goal 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 13 - Climate Action and Goal 17 - Partnerships to achieve the Goals, are driving forces in this important fight. 

Speaking at the 2023 Green Economy Forum, CEO of Egytrans, Engr. Abir Leheta said “Real change requires concerted action on multiple fronts, including improvement to infrastructure, diversifying the transport mix, and raising awareness and compliance in a fragmented industry”.

In line with the Paris agreement, Egytrans’ vision is to significantly reduce its carbon emissions by 2030. To do this, they needed to have a full understanding of the current situation, the issues and how to move forward. 

The company made the decision to participate in the Climate Ambition Accelerator organized by the United Nations Global Compact. Through the Accelerator they got the needed support in identifying and planning to manage their climate and sustainability related issues as they benefited from all the resources and workshops provided to cover the topic.

Ahmed Elshahwany, QHSE & Risk Manager for Egytrans noted “The UN Global Compact’s Climate Ambition Accelerator has been very beneficial for us as a company. All key personnel of Egytrans benefitted from this through gaining awareness and knowledge, but the highest benefit is a clear improvement in the environmental management system and ESG reporting of our company”.

In the fight against global warming and climate change, a major cause of resistance comes from lack of knowledge and fears from changing current processes. As this fight was one of Egytrans’ strategic objectives, the company knew that it needed to manage any such resistance by raising staff and supplier awareness.

After the Climate Ambition Accelerator, Egytrans took the learnings from the sessions and conducted two workshops for their critical stakeholders including relevant staff and supply chain partners. The outcome of these workshops was that the company started measuring its carbon footprint for the year 2022. Selecting the starting point of change and good change planning and preparation is helping the company overcome any resistance to change.

Six months into the process in 2022 and the progress was already visible. Using cycle time for reporting and percentage of energy optimization and reductions, the company was measuring and tracking its results more scientifically. They also updated their risk assessment to include climate risks, energy consumption recording and management.

Taking from the learnings of measuring its carbon footprint, Egytrans has now begun the process of developing a long-term plan of action for the coming years. Using 2022 carbon footprint measures as a baseline, the company is targeting and measuring improvements in reducing emissions until 2030 and beyond.

Egytrans is also working to instigate wider change in Egypt’s freight ecosystem. Recognizing that more awareness is needed on the importance of sustainability action, the company is engaging with different business groups and speaking publicly about their sustainability journey to help raise consciousness on the topic.

“Whenever we speak about our sustainability journey, we make a note to encourage other companies to attend the Climate Ambition Accelerator because the training and certification will help them in improving their environmental performance” Ahmed says.



Ahmed presented Egytrans journey towards green transformation and its progress on carbon footprint measures for 2022 at the 2023 Egyptian SMEs workshop on ‘Supporting Green Transitions for SMEs” organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 

“The progress made by Egytrans over the last year is remarkable. They have taken the knowledge and resources from the Climate Ambition Accelerator and used them effectively to take measurable climate action” says Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network Egypt, Walaa El Hussieny. 

“The private sector awareness on sustainability is growing and we currently have about 100 companies signed on to the Global Compact Network in Egypt. We anticipate more joiners as companies seek to make real, measurable change in their organizations and the ecosystem” she noted.