DHL cooperates with Henkel to enhance use of sustainable marine fuel

Photo: DHL Global Forwarding

DHL Global Forwarding announced in September that the company is taking its longstanding sustainability partnership with Henkel, a global leader in industrial and consumer goods, to a new level.

The two companies are already collaborating on projects to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, for example, through transport-mode optimization and shipment consolidation.

In the new phase of their collaboration, ocean carriers utilize waste- and residues-based maritime fuels—sustainable marine fuel (SMF)—on behalf of DHL Global Forwarding.

DHL Global Forwarding then allocates the resulting emissions reductions to Henkel via book and claim.

Book and claim enables DHL to directly replace fossil fuels with sustainable fuels within its network and allocate environmental benefits to paying customers—even when their shipments are not physically transported with the assets using these fuels.

DHL Global Forwarding said it will utilize sustainable marine fuel for the majority of Henkel’s ocean-freight volumes.

“This expansion of our partnership is another milestone in our joint decarbonization journey,” said Amanda Rasmussen, the chief commercial officer at DHL Global Forwarding. “By combining Henkel’s ambitious climate strategy with our sustainable-logistics solutions, we are demonstrating that progress toward decarbonizing supply chains is possible today. We hope this agreement will inspire other companies to transition to low-emission transportation services using sustainable marine fuel.”

The agreement covers around 9,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of ocean freight to be transported with GoGreen Plus in 2025.

Utilizing SMF reduces greenhouse-gas emissions on a well-to-wake basis by approximately 4,700 metric tons of CO2e—equivalent to a reduction of around 85 percent of greenhouse gases on the main haul compared to conventional marine fuel.

The emission reductions will be verified by SGS, an independent certification body. 

“Working with DHL Global Forwarding on sustainable transport solutions is an important part of our strategy to reduce emissions within our logistics processes,” said Ondrej Slezacek, Henkel’s global category manager for sea and air freight. “Simultaneously, it helps accelerate the overall transition to low-emission logistics in our industry.”

The initiative builds on a successful project in 2024, when Henkel and DHL Global Forwarding piloted SMF on a selected part of Henkel’s volumes.

According to DHL, the significant expansion in 2025 demonstrates the shared determination to advance their logistics-decarbonization activities.

Most of the shipments originate in Europe.

For DHL Global Forwarding, this sends a strong signal of the growing demand for sustainable-transport solutions.

By making large-scale use of SMF, DHL Global Forwarding said it and Henkel are helping to strengthen the market for sustainable fuels and to overcome existing availability constraints.