From Carbon Neutral to Carbon Positive: A Logistics Road Map for Central America

For many Central American companies, sustainability is now a prerequisite for competing, securing financing, attracting international partners, and meeting the expectations of increasingly demanding customers. The challenge is even more sensitive in logistics: cutting emissions without compromising speed, traceability, or operational security.

Against this backdrop, Agencias J.I. Cohen, founded by Jack Irving Cohen and led by Alberto Cohen Mory, offers a useful case study in how a pharmaceutical logistics operation can move from environmental efficiency toward a more ambitious road map—from carbon neutral to carbon positive.

What Does It Mean to Move from Carbon Neutral to Carbon Positive in Logistics?

Carbon neutrality involves measuring, reducing, and offsetting emissions. However, ISO 14068-1 establishes that neutrality should rely first on actual reductions within the operation before turning to external offsets.

A carbon-positive approach goes one step further. Beyond balancing a footprint, it seeks to create an operation that reduces impacts, improves processes, and delivers additional environmental benefits. For a logistics company, this begins with three questions: how much energy it consumes, how it moves its products, and how measurable each improvement is.

At Agencias J.I. Cohen, sustainability is embedded in the company's corporate pillars alongside governance, environmental stewardship, labor practices, consumer responsibility, and community relations. This foundation keeps the environmental conversation rooted in operational decisions rather than a campaign.

How Do Companies Build a Credible Path Toward Environmental Certifications?

For B2B companies, the first pain point is evidence. A serious path toward environmental certification must therefore begin with emissions inventories prepared under recognized criteria.

The GHG Protocol classifies direct emissions, emissions from purchased energy, and value-chain emissions, including those from suppliers and outsourced transportation, which are often the most difficult for logistics companies to control.

In practical terms, the road map consists of five steps: measure energy consumption, identify critical points, reduce operational emissions, document results, and have progress verified by third parties. This process also builds trust during audits, bidding processes, and due diligence reviews.

J.I. Cohen, S.A. has an advantage in this area: its recognition by Guatemala's Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT) as an Authorized Economic Operator since 2014 has fostered monitoring, internal audits, training, and logistics traceability. That culture of compliance makes it easier to move toward more demanding environmental standards.

Which Operating Practices Move a Logistics Company Closer to Carbon Positive?

Sustainable logistics begins in the areas where many companies lose efficiency: warehousing, energy, transportation, and dispatch. At J.I. Cohen, pharmaceutical warehouses use LED lighting, temperature controls, around-the-clock monitoring, a first-expired, first-out (FEFO) system, and a cold room with triple redundancy powered by the grid, solar energy, batteries, and a diesel generator.

The distribution operation also uses fully electric panel vans equipped with GPS and temperature controls. This reduces reliance on fuel for last-mile deliveries while protecting sensitive medicines in transit.

The planned distribution center will add another layer: advanced robotics to prepare orders, reduce human error, and increase efficiency within the same operating window. That precision matters in sustainable logistics. Fewer repeat processes, fewer losses, and better product availability also mean less operational waste.

Why Does This Road Map Matter for Central America?

Central America needs more resilient supply chains, particularly in critical sectors such as health care, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods. For stakeholders, international banks, and investors, a company that measures, reduces, and documents its impact inspires more confidence than one that merely communicates good intentions.

The Science Based Targets initiative has also advanced the concept of beyond value chain mitigation, encouraging companies to finance additional climate action once they have established serious internal reductions.

That is the central point: becoming carbon positive begins with discipline. Measure better. Operate better. Reduce before offsetting. Then turn sustainability into a verifiable logistics advantage.

For companies such as Agencias J.I. Cohen, the environmental transition extends across warehousing, transportation, regulatory compliance, and the trust behind every delivery. That may be the new logistics road map Central America needs.