🚚 CO2 Emissions of Freight Shipments with Carbon Interface API and GPT-4o

Tags : Sustainability, Supply Chain, AI Agent, CO2 Emissions, Carbon Interface API, Logistics, Automation

Context

Hi! I’m Samir — a Supply Chain Engineer and Data Scientist based in Paris, and founder of LogiGreen Consulting.

I help logistics teams reduce their environmental footprint by combining AI automation and carbon estimation APIs.

This workflow is part of our green logistics initiative , allowing businesses to track the CO₂ emissions of last-mile or regional shipments.

Automate carbon tracking for shipping operations with n8n!

📬 For business inquiries, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn

Who is this template for?

This workflow is designed for logistics coordinators , transportation planners , or sustainability officers who want to estimate and record emissions for B2B shipments.

Let’s imagine your carrier sends a shipment confirmation email after a pickup is scheduled:

An AI Agent reads the email and extracts structured data: addresses, distance, cargo weight, and delivery time.

The Carbon Interface API is then called to calculate CO₂ emissions based on weight and distance , and the results are stored in a Google Sheet.

How does it work?

This workflow automates the process of tracking CO₂ emissions for scheduled shipments :

• 📨 Gmail Trigger captures shipment confirmation emails
• 🧠 AI Agent parses the shipment info (pickup, delivery, weight, distance)
• 🚚 Carbon Interface API estimates CO₂ emissions
• 📊 Google Sheets is used to store shipment metadata and carbon results

Steps:

1. 💌 Trigger on new shipment confirmation email
2. 🧠 Extract structured shipment info with AI Agent
3. 📋 Store metadata in Google Sheets
4. ⚙️ Call Carbon Interface API with weight and distance
5. 📥 Append estimated CO₂ emissions to the shipment row

What do I need to get started?

You’ll need:

• A Gmail account to receive shipment confirmation emails
• A Google Sheet to track shipment data and CO₂
• A free Carbon Interface API key
• OpenAI access for using the AI Agent parser
• A few sample emails from your logistics provider to test

Next Steps

🗒️ Use the sticky notes in the n8n canvas to:

• Add your Gmail and Carbon Interface credentials
• Try with a sample shipment confirmation email
• Check your Google Sheet to verify emissions and timestamps

This template was built using n8n v1.93.0
Submitted: June 7, 2025