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If logistics providers assume they can nail the peak season just by ensuring every shipment is on time. They sure need to think again. Because in 2025, if carbon limits are blown past to get there, it would count as a failure.
For decades, peak season logistics’ success was measured with only two metrics: reliability and speed. A logistics provider would be considered successful if parcels arrived intact and on time. They hit their cut-offs, protect their damage rate and they were considered golden. But not anymore.
Now a third scorecard has been introduced in 2025: Carbon SLAs. This means the tactics that once kept business afloat in peak season like half-empty trucks, emergency air freight and extra packaging, can now sink SLA with a risk of breach.
The real test today is balancing speed, reliability and carbon, when pulling one lever threatens another.
Why is this hardest during peak season
Peak season puts logistics networks under maximum strain. Traditionally, certain practices adopted to ensure speed and reliability tend to burden carbon intensity per shipment. That’s the hidden risk: Hitting every delivery target, satisfying every customer and still failing the carbon SLA. The end result? Financial penalties, lost business or exclusion from next year’s vendor list. For logistics companies, this is a new compliance frontier.
Let’s say a retailer signs a contract for peak season:
- Deliver goods within 48 hours (classic SLA).
- Keep emissions below 2 kg CO2 per package (Carbon SLA)
If the logistics provider chooses air freight to meet the time target, there’s risk of breaching the carbon limit. Choosing rail or ocean to hit the carbon target might mean missing the deadline. The trick is balancing both which is exactly where logistics innovations like micro-warehousing, greener trucks and hybrid delivery models come into play letting service expectations be met without compromising sustainability.
Why Carbon SLAs Are Emerging Now
Emissions reporting is becoming mandatory. Deliveries with a high carbon footprint can hurt brand reputation. Carbon has also become a financial issue as taxes and fuel costs rise. Regulators demand it, customers expect it and costs enforce it. That’s why carbon SLAs are now the standard by which logistics performance is now judged.
Carbon SLAs are quietly changing the way performance is measured. Logistics providers used to be judged only on how fast shipments arrived. Now there’s a new measure: how green that journey was.
It is an opportunity to prove that the fastest delivery shouldn’t be at the cost of the planet’s expense.
