Greentech company SpaceInvader receives Børsens gazelle award 2022

 

Greentech company SpaceInvader has for the first time received a ‘Gazelle Award’, which is an annual business growth prize awarded by the leading Danish business daily Børsen. SpaceInvader’s solution helps the logistics and supply chain industry reduce its carbon footprint and save costs. The award is given to companies that have generated the most revenue growth in the past year. Out of the record number of companies receiving the award this year, SpaceInvader is placed in the top 12% with a revenue growth of 370%.

Each year, Børsen awards the fastest growing companies in Denmark when it selects the Gazelle companies of the year. In 2022, SpaceInvader made it into the exclusive club among a total of 2,651 growth companies that met the gazelle award criteria.

“We are very proud of the gazelle award and the recognition that comes along. When we also land among the top 12% with a revenue and growth increase of 370%, we are confirmed that we are on the right track with our climate solution”, says Steen Frederiksen, CEO of SpaceInvader.

The company has invented and patented a unique transport rack system that helps the logistics and supply chain sector decarbonise and save costs through capacity optimisation of goods handling in the supply chain from production to transport and distribution.

“We entered the market in earnest in 2018 and although the pandemic obviously challenged us, we managed to further develop and grow our business. The benefits our solution brings to the market in terms of CO2 reductions and cost savings are extraordinarily needed in challenging times with unstable freight rates, supply chains under pressure, driver shortages, high fuel prices, and an urgent need to think climate into all business decisions”, says Steen Frederiksen.

2022 was also the year SpaceInvader both adapted its growth strategy and prepared for further scaling and new market entries. SpaceInvader also published its first climate report in 2022 documenting significant CO2 savings for the company’s customers. Customers include major companies such as PostNord, Bring, Blue Water Shipping and Asko.

“The gazelle award only relates to revenue growth; hence it is not a climate award. In all modesty, we are proud of the growth, but we are particularly proud that our solution helps companies to become greener, which is ultimately what we set out to do. The future looks bright for SpaceInvader, and we look forward to scaling the business further in collaboration with both current and new customers and partners in the new year”, Steen Frederiksen concludes.

Who gets the gazelle award?

Dagbladet Børsen has been awarding gazelle companies since 1995. Nationwide, 2,651 gazelle companies were awarded in 2022. A gazelle is a company that has achieved growth in each of the past four financial years and has at least doubled its turnover over the four years. If the company does not report turnover in its accounts, growth is calculated on the basis of gross profit. Gazelles help secure the future of Danish business by creating jobs, growth, and optimism.

About SpaceInvader
SpaceInvader is a Danish green-tech company founded in 2015. We have developed a unique, patented, and modular transport system, the pallet rack ‘SpaceInvader’ that revolutionises the logistics and supply-chain sector. The system enables stable double stacking of goods by making optimal use of height during transport. The solution is designed to fit a standard EUR pallet and improves capacity and saves CO2 from optimised cargo handling – all the way from production to transport, and distribution. It is SpaceInvader’s mission to decarbonise transportation of goods for the benefit of society and the climate. In 2022, SpaceInvader received a Børsen Gazelle award and published its first climate report in 2022, documenting major climate savings for its customers.

SpaceInvader Climate Report 2021

SpaceInvader documents a reduction of 6,645 tons CO2 from clients’ use of pallet racks in 2021.

The earth’s climate is challenged like never before, and we need to find solutions that are proven to work and implement them fast. We have one of those solutions at SpaceInvader. We worked with Kobra Advice to put our money where our mouth is and the result is our climate report for 2021.

Beyond documenting our own green balance sheet, the report also contains the climate model we use, Green Space Impact (GSI), which calculates how much CO2 our clients save by using SpaceInvader. Producing this report was both a costly and labor-intensive affair, but it’s something we feel is of great strategic importance. We want to prove to our clients what we already know – the CO2 reduction our solution offers is real and attainable. 

We were put in the world to make transportation more sustainable, and the climate model is an eyeopener for our partners when they see the CO2 savings that are possible. When the majority of companies discuss the green transition of heavy road transports, they usually focus on greener fuels, electrification, etc. Very few consider the great CO2 savings that are possible from something as simple as making fewer runs. We need to start having this conversation, for the sake of the environment, costs and congestion on our roads. There’s so much to be gained. 

Let me give you an example: In the grid below, we’ve calculated how much CO2 a client can save with every truck per year by using SpaceInvader. (The model is based on a client who drives 24-ton trucks with 33 pallet positions and a diesel consumption of 3.1 km/liter.) If SpaceInvader on average frees up merely 8 of the 33 pallet positions through double-stacking of pallets, the yearly net savings reach 37.7 tons CO2 and 12,000 liters of diesel per truck based on a daily distance of 500 km. driven per day. (180,000 km. per truck per year)

So if we just imagine a carrier who employs 100 trucks in their daily operations, the collective yearly savings grow accordingly. 100 trucks reduce the carrier’s carbon footprint by 3,770 tons CO2 yearly. And as a company this carbon footprint is your footprint, as it’s included in your so-called scope 3 emissions – something everyone in the supply chain must work together to reduce.

And the good news: there’s money to be made by getting the transition underway

There’s also the added benefit that our solution reduces costs as well as CO2. We’ve seen logistics professionals and carriers save somewhere between 15-30% by systematically optimising their freight. And with an additional carbon tax on the way starting in 2025, rumoured to be 750 DKK per ton, a typical optimization of 15% calculated on the above example would see potential yearly savings hit 280,000 DKK per year for every single truck.  

I hope you’ve been inspired to take action, because our environment demands it, and we need to move fast. The good news is the payoffs begin on day one. If you want to know more about how we work with our clients to reduce CO2 and optimise capacity, you’re welcome to give me a call. I’m attaching our climate report to this message – happy reading!

Best wishes
Steen Frederiksen
CEO

Read Børsen Logistik’s article on SpaceInvader’s CO2 results

Børsen Logistik has written an article about SpaceInvader, where we talk about the results from our climate work, the publication of our first climate report (2021), and the CO2 reductions our customers have achieved.

The report proves that what we fight for every day – making the transport of palletized goods more sustainable – is actually possible and makes a difference!

SpaceInvader is not only carbon neutral, but also carbon negative. In other words, we reduce more CO2 than we emit. This is due to our circular business model and our patented transport system that reduces emissions from our customers’ transport.

The report documents that we reduced 6,645 tonnes of CO2 for our customers in 2021. Each set of pallet racks triggers an annual CO2 reduction of about 4.75 tonnes, and there is potential for much more. Our next target is 15,000 sets of racks in operation. With them, we can deliver an annual reduction of 71,250 tonnes of CO2 by reducing the number of trucks on the road.

It is crucial that we can prove the CO2 reduction to our customers. The fact that they at the same time can achieve solid financial savings, is an extraordinary side-benefit in a competitive industry.

I hope you will read more in the Børsens article and our press release. They are linked here:
Link to the Børsen article in Danish (English translation below):
https://lnkd.in/en84qcGr

Link to our press release in both Danish and English:
https://lnkd.in/eYti7Wir

Transport innovation company proves its worth

The Danish entrepreneurial company, SpaceInvader has just published its first climate report. The report documents that SpaceInvader as a company in 2021 is not only climate neutral, but climate negative.

Steen Frederiksen, CEO of SpaceInvader, gives two reasons for preparing a climate report. “We wanted to take our own medicine. We had to prove that we can reduce CO2 emissions. At the same time, we also need to prove that we actually have a circular model that works. We can’t market ourselves as a green company without preparing a climate report. So you could say that the report is an endorsement of ourselves,” says Steen Frederiksen.

SpaceInvader’s circular business model makes the most of products, recycles materials and keeps products in circulation for a long time. At the same time, SpaceInvader saved its customers 6645 tonnes of CO2 in 2021.

Ingrained habits
On the other hand, the director sees the ability to change within the transport sector as one of the biggest challenges.

“It can be difficult to create the use of a new tool for optimisation. People who work with packing trucks need to change their habits,” says Steen Frederiksen and adds, “The transport sector generally lacks the creativity to find solutions to the green transition. I do not want to use the expression ‘foot-dragging’ about the transport sector, but there is a tendency to do so. They do not push their customers enough in terms of the green transition to help provide solutions. You can actually create savings here and now without costing anything,” he says.

Effective fill
SpaceInvader has developed and patented a transport system that allows pallet goods to be double-stacked, enabling logistics operators to fill their trucks better and more efficiently, ultimately saving runs. It is in the avoided runs you will find the CO2 reduction. Also, large amounts of fuel and other costs related to operating the runs are saved.

The solution can optimise goods safely and stably in trucks, warehouses and at the end recipient. The system solves key challenges in the logistics chain and reduces some of the biggest challenges in heavy transport – low fill rates and empty runs. Even with empty runs, a truck emits 70% of the CO2 it does when fully loaded.

“Our climate report and climate model are strategically important for us as a company, even though it has been both a lot of work and a major investment to prepare as an entrepreneurial company. The good news is that we have a negative climate footprint because our patented pallet system reduces the climate impact of our customers’ transport,” continues Steen Frederiksen.

The climate result for 2021 is achieved with 1,400 rack sets in operation. “Our current goal is to get 15,000 sets out in the world,” says Steen Frederiksen. The ambitious goal of the company is to seek investors who can help lift the growth plans.

In that scaling scenario, SpaceInvader would save its customers 4.75 tonnes of CO2 per set per year – in other words, 71,250 tonnes of CO2. This is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of the citizens of a city the size of Esbjerg. According to the Danish Energy Agency, each Dane emits an average of 11 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Decisive documentation
“It is crucial that we demonstrate the climate impact of our solution to our customers. The fact that they achieve solid financial savings at the same time is an extraordinary side-benefit in a competitive supply market. We were created to make transport more sustainable. When we work with our customers on our climate model, and they see the CO2 savings in black and white, it becomes an eye-opener for the companies we are talking to,” says Steen Frederiksen.

According to SpaceInvader, the vast majority of logistics operators and transporters can save between 15-30% in CO2 emissions by working systematically on freight optimisation to fill up vehicles more efficiently. In Europe, the average fill level of a truck today is just 57%, so there’s a lot to be gained.

About SpaceInvader

SpaceInvader, founded in 2015, is a Danish green-tech company that is part of the circular economy and helps the transport and logistics industry to optimise freight capacity. The company has developed a climate solution that provides both a documentable CO2 reduction in the supply chain and a high return on investment. With its patented pallet rack system, the SpaceInvader solution enables stable and secure double stacking of pallet goods in trucks, warehouses, and at the end recipient.

Double stock versus racks – what’s what?


Generate significant economic and environmental value through capacity optimisation

Every day, we meet with logistics professionals and discuss how they handle and optimise the growing amount of pallet freight they’re asked to transport during a time of increasing climate regulations and scarce capacity. Almost all of them are looking for solutions and concrete optimisation tools that will accommodate these aforementioned challenges. It’s here that pallet racks and double stock are mentioned as solutions, and we’re often asked: Why should we use SpaceInvader’s pallet racks when we can go with double stock, a tool already in use and known to many? It’s a great question that we like to provide a nuanced answer to. We don’t believe there’s a simple yes-or-no answer when double stock is better than racks or vice-versa in terms of optimising your capacity. Confused? Let’s take a closer look at the two different solutions, while keeping in mind the two solutions can compliment each other for maximum operational payoff.

We hope you’ll have a read:

The SpaceInvader distribution solution

There are many gains to be made in your distribution operation when you double-stack your pallet freight. Gains that benefit both you and your customers. More goods on every truck make you more competitive, benefits your bottom line, the ergonomics of your load, and reduces the environmental footprint of your entire distribution chain. How so?

When you double-stack, you’re optimizing your packing and you can fit more freight on every truck. You save trucks, space, money, and CO2. Double-stacking of pallet goods makes it possible to easily and safely stack two 120 cm. pallets as one stable stack. With the SpaceInvader solution you can stack as high as 240 cm. and use the entirety of the truck’s cargo area. It becomes both easier and more efficient when you prepare the freight during production, loading the truck and unloading at the delivery point. The pallet’s optimal working height (120 cm.) optimises your workflow, both during your production and transportation, but also that of the customer, as your delivery is more ergonomic and easier to handle.

Read more about the many benefits in this brochure:

Logistical and strategic heavyweight joins SpaceInvader

Britta Toftum joined SpaceInvader on June 1st, 2022 as Chief Commercial Officer. She arrives at SpaceInvader at a time when both the company and the logistics industry is busier than ever before, as more and more carriers are realizing the gains to be made by optimizing capacity and increasing a vehicle’s fill rate.

With Britta, we now offer our clients a new level level of expertise and insight when it comes to logistical analysis and sales, both in the initial phase with SpaceInvader pilot tests, and the follow-up phase, where most customers scale the use of racks in their organization, when having built familiarity with the system and seeing the tangible results made possible through SpaceInvader double-stacking.

Britta’s many years of sales and leadership experience in the logistics sector makes her an exceptionally competent sparring partner for both existing and new customers facing complex logistical challenges. In aid of taking on these challenges, Britta can offer qualified advice as she has a proven track record of navigating large corporations with complex supply chains.


“Now more than ever,  the world needs the capacity optimization the SpaceInvader system offers. I’m ready to bring about that breakthrough together with the rest of the team at SpaceInvader, whose client list already boasts prominent logistics companies like Bring, PostNord Logistics and Blue Water Shipping.”
– Britta Toftum, Chief Commercial Officer 

With her experience and analytical approach to capacity optimization, Britta can become your competent advisor. She draws on a wealth of experience from the logistics sector due to her long career working for SAS Cargo, among others. Firstly, as Sales Director for Europe, and later Head of Cargo Sales for North America. The last four years she proved herself as a leader for more than 1,100 SAS cabin crew members working in Scandinavia and in Asia. 

A sector she knows inside and out
Britta’s passion is helping carriers in a sector she knows inside and out, supporting them in becoming greener and more economically sustainable through capacity optimization. It’s about saving space, money, and CO2.

We’re looking forward to working with Britta and drawing on the valuable international sales and leadership experience she brings.

Maybe you want to meet Britta as well? In the coming months she’ll be meeting both existing and new customers as more and more logistics carriers realize the great potential in double-stacking.

You can read more about Britta on her LinkedIn, or contact her directly at +45 2856 8448‬ and bt@spaceinvader.com.

Terminal transportation can be optimised with great gains to be had

There are plenty of challenges to take on when it comes to the optimisation of logistics. To name a few, there’s the climate crisis, the global supply chain crisis, increased flow of goods, record-setting fuel prices, labour shortage, and so on. Some of these challenges can be met by optimising your cargo capacity even further, so you carry more goods in every truck and ultimately need fewer drivers. And every penny saved is a penny earned.

There are many areas you can focus on: transportation of goods between the point of manufacture and distribution terminals (hub-hub), including transport of semi- or finished goods from point of manufacture to intermediate storage points or all the way to the distribution terminal. 

Many carriers might be of the opinion, that their transportation of goods and cargo is already fully optimized using every known technique and tool. We think there’s always room to improve. The goal is to get the wasted space found in every truck’s cargo area, so we can avoid empty runs and carrying surplus pallets between locations. If you can also reduce your need for storage space and time used to arrange, load and unload, that’s an added benefit. With SpaceInvader’s pallet racks, you can prepare all of your cargo directly on the dock and are thereby able to handle and move the fully optimized cargo throughout your value chain – all the way to the end destination, in fact. You can also stack fragile, dangerous, or particularly valuable cargo. That way you use more of the space in your cargo area. Same goes for cargo, that you normally wouldn’t stack. You’ll find that only a few double-stacks are needed before you see real tangible results on your bottom line and a reduction in your emissions. 

We’ve written a casestudy which provides some insight into hub-hub optimisation with SpaceInvader’s transport system, and explains how you can optimise your capacity through SpaceInvader double-stacking. We hope you’ll have a read. 


Download casestudy:

Optimising capacity – the green way forward

The climate crisis concerns us all, and global warming’s consequences become clearer with every year that passes. Denmark has a stated goal of reducing its CO2 emissions by 70% by 2030. The transportation and logistics industry has to do its part, but it’s tremendous and costly challenge to transition an essential socio-economic industry, which for decades has depended on fossil fuels.

For many businesses today, climate action is a strategic priority with equal importance to that of financial targets. Luckily, green technologies are being developed as we speak. Green technologiges that will help supply chains become more sustainable.

The transition requires both a willingness to change and often new investments. Some green solutions are more expensive and uncertain investments than others, particularly when they haven’t yet matured to a point of commercial viability.

In Denmark, trucks make their routes with an average fill rate of 56% (ITD). We can do better. Because if we load more on every truck, we’ll ultimately save trucks, and reduce CO2 and other harmful emissions. On average, SpaceInvader’s clients reduce their CO2 emissions by at least 15%.

We’ve written a small piece about how double-stacking pallets and cargo thereon can help the transportation and logistics industry save space, money and CO2 simply by optimizing capacity. There are gains to be made – throughout the supply chain.


Download climate-case:

FILL THE TRUCKS: Capacity optimisation as remedy for the supply crisis

 

The world is currently experiencing a serious supply crisis, which also is making its mark in Denmark and the Nordic countries. The crisis did not arise overnight and has many causes, such as major logistical bottleneck problems from manufacturing China due to the Corona pandemic, galloping freight rates, acute global shortages of drivers, lorries, and trailers. In addition, consumers’ changing buying habits have caused e-commerce to explode, resulting in more goods than ever being transported from A to B. As an example, last year (2020), as much as 89% of the Danes shopped via the Internet (DS) .

The current supply situation affects many sectors and industries and in particular the transport and logistics industry. Consumers also feel this when freight prices rise or when their ordered goods arrive either too late or not at all. Most recently, due to BREXIT and related changes in regulation of work and residence permits, we have seen a severe acute shortage of up to 100,000 lorry drivers in England. The result is empty shelves in supermarkets and a national supply crisis.

On top of that, we must all – as companies and consumers – take an active approach to the climate crisis, where we all can reduce our individual footprint, by changing our behaviour. CO2 levels can only be reduced, and climate goals can only be achieved if we change habits, get creative and innovative. Now is the time to act; not in five, 10 or 20 years. And we will all somehow pay parts of the bill e.g. in the form more CO2 tax or more expensive goods and services. For example, a kilometre-based CO2 tax for heavy transport has already been announced in Denmark.

If there is no silver bullet – is there another solution?
The supply and capacity challenges mentioned are national, regional and global. Basically, it boils down to the fact that there is a higher demand for goods than what is possible to ship to the recipients. Again, zooming in to Denmark, we see the same challenge, even though the number of trucks on the Danish motorways has grown by 26% in just 10 years.
The situation is complex and cannot be solved with the flick of a finger because so many factors come into play.

But there is one factor that WILL have a positive effect on the issues outlined. And that is the optimisation of goods and freight capacity, which can be done without large investments, or for that matter without major changes in supply chain management

Fill the trucks better
Looking at the heavy road transport in Denmark as an example, the trucks simply are not full enough. Right now, the filling rate is only 56%, and that is in fact an improvement since 2008, when the figure was 38% (ITD). There may be good explanations for why we are not able to fill all lorries as much as we would like to, but there is far more to gain. And we can distribute certain types of goods (pallet goods) differently, just as we can plan, pack and stack the goods better and higher. If we do, we will get rid of some of the empty air in the lorry, allowing us to utilise the freight space better and getting more goods into each lorry.

When optimising the lorries and their freight capacity, we can get by with fewer lorries our fleet operation (= less investment), fewer drivers (= remedy to driver shortage). Finally, we can also reduce our environmental and CO2 footprint. On average, SpaceInvader’s customers achieve a saving of minimum15% – on both costs and CO2 / NOx. There is a documented correlation between financial gains and climate gains – when pallet goods are optimised with double-stacking.

Not only can capacity optimisation help a suffering sector save space, money and CO2, but at the same time, the optimisation alleviates some of the urgent challenges that the supply sector – and thus all of us – experience nowadays.

At SpaceInvader, we offer a simple and innovative solution that optimises the supply chain capacity. One of our customers, PostNord Logistics, already saves every 8th truck and both Bring, Asko, Solar, Velux and others are just now picking up the same or even higher winnings.

In just 10 years, heavy transport on Danish roads increased by 26%!

This is the sad news that both leading Danish media Jyllands-Posten and TV2 national news – brought on Tuesday 21 September 2021.

Fortunately, it is possible to reverse this downward tendency by optimising the capacity of the lorries that bring goods around the country to both companies, public institutions, and private consumers. In fact, one of the country’s leading logistics operators, PostNord Logistics, already saved every 8th lorry in their operations through capacity optimisation. More on that later.

In some places along the Danish motorway network, there are up to 58% more lorries on the roads today than just 10 years ago. It is therefore a major challenge to optimise freight capacity to reduce the proportion of empty or half-empty road journeys.

Increased filling rate – a shortcut to fewer lorries and greener transport
According to the transport industry association ITD, the filling rate for lorries today is 56%, against only 38% in 2008. Thus, the industry has improved significantly already, but there is still much more to gain, for example through greater data transparency across supply chains, changed logistics behaviour, and by implementing new innovative solutions.

This does not only apply to more green fuels solutions and new vehicle technologies, of which many are still under commercial maturation and development and therefore remain expensive for large scale implementation.

The fact that heavy road traffic has increased significantly over the past 10 years unfortunately creates both infrastructural challenges, increased congestion on main roads and consequently, increased CO2 emissions.

The good news is that we all, both as consumers and companies, can do something about it here and now, whilst we wait for “the silver bullet” to break the climate curve and the negative development.

The transport and logistics sector creates value to society and performs an important socio-economic task, ensuring supply security and transporting goods to both companies and consumers. The fact is that we all contribute negatively to increased transport and CO2 emissions, partly because e-commerce has increased dramatically.

A CO2 tax will not do it alone
However, it is possible with existing solutions to optimise freight capacity cost-effectively and for the benefit of the climate. A kilometre-based CO2 tax could solve some of the problem, but there are other options too.

Danish Transport Minister, Benny Engelbrecht, told Jyllands-Posten yesterday: “One of the problems is the number of empty-driven kilometres. We must make the best possible use of available lorry capacity, and here the current tax on lorries is not appropriate. Therefore, part of the answer to the challenges is the kilometre-based CO2 tax, which will come into force in 2025. With this operators must pay per driven km instead of a flat charge. And if you drive CO2-neutral, you get a 75 percent discount”!

A kilometre-based CO2 tax will have a positive climate effect, and we will all be paying the extra price. It is not possible to transform our society into a greener and more sustainable society, without wanting to pay for it, or changing our behaviours. And the vast majority are fortunately ready to do so.

At the same time, regulation should also look at how logistics operators can optimise the capacity and filling rate of lorries, so that the proportion of non-optimised freight transport is minimised, thus reducing the number of lorries on the roads.

In spring 2020, the Minister of Transport visited our climate partner Blue Water Shipping, who is already working to optimise load capacity of both their own and customers’ fleet operations with the SpaceInvader solution. A solution which, with efficient double-stacking of pallet goods, triggers large gains to the benefit of both the climate and the financial bottom line.

Green customers lead the way
SpaceInvader’s transportation system helps logistics operators reduce their CO2 / NOx emissions by minimum 15%. The lorries are packed better and filled up more, in the end, this means significantly fewer lorries on the roads. PostNord in Denmark has already saved every 8th lorry on the routes where the SpaceInvader system has been put into operation, and the ambition does not stop there – they want to remove even more trucks.

The green transition of heavy transport is thus about more than a future CO2 tax, and investment in greener vehicles and fuels. There are already cost-effective quick-wins available to pick with low-tech capacity optimisation – here and now – while we all wait for the “hockey stick” technology.