Research shows that climate changes we face today is a consequence of the increasing amounts of greenhouse gases that circulate in our atmosphere due to increased human industrial activity. Many firms and industries are therefore increasingly implementing environmental management strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions towards a more sustainable environment. These environmental management efforts can be broadly classified under two umbrellas which are sustainable production and sustainable consumption and these two parts need to work together in order to contribute effectively towards a more sustainable environment. The environmental management literature however reveals a gap between sustainable production and sustainable use of vehicles in the automotive industry showing that while the major global environmental impact - greenhouse gas emissions - occurs when vehicles are put to use, the environmental management efforts in the industry are skewed to the production of vehicles.An emerging trend to breach this gap is that vehicle manufacturers are providing extending services to help vehicle users minimize their greenhouse gas emissions.

This study analyses the extended service packages of the global truck manufacturer, Scania, against the environmental objectives and initiatives of five road transport companies in Sweden. An exploratory case study approach was used from the perspective of the road freight transport companies to find out if extended services present suitable opportunities to extend environmental management from manufacturers to users in the road freight transport industry.

The study found that the extended services provide solutions that help road freighttransport companies to achieve lower fuel consumption and lower emissions from theirvehicles. Road freight transport companies traditionally invest in environmental initiatives to gain marketing advantages but the extended services present a rare opportunity to the companies to compete on profit margins by investing in the extended services.