Any successful strategies to achieve real and transforming energy conservation and GHG reduction targets must engage new technologies, alternative energies, modal infrastructure redesign, and behavior changes by operators and logistics providers. Freight systems in particular may offer new opportunities to work across energy carrying fuels and technologies, vehicle and payload configurations, multimodal network designs for road and rail (etc.!). However, no engineering innovations will achieve these goals – without considering the economics of commerce in the national and global economy. Moreover, the behavior changes that will be needed – or conversely, the behavior responses that could impede technology-first “solutions” – require policy action. This presentation will use freight systems to outline the challenges of decarbonization. We will identify how technology, energy, and behavior need to be considered jointly to meet public goals for mitigating GHG emissions. And we will identify the complex policy agents and fora that must be engaged cooperatively by technologists, energy providers, and economic behavioralists.