DHL Global Forwarding records increasing demand for sustainable transport solutions

Photo: DHL Group

DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Group’s air- and ocean-freight specialist, is recording an increased demand in sustainable transport solutions based on the usage of biofuels such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Whether in a tender process or in discussion with existing customers, a growing number of shippers are not only requesting greater greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions transparency, but are also exploring sustainable solutions, even if they come at an additional cost.

With DHL Global Forwarding’s GoGreen Plus service, life-science company Novo Nordisk recently started decarbonizing its air-freight shipments, which will amount to at least 30,000 metric tons of CO2e in 2023.

But with the growing demand, the availability of sustainable fuels must be scaled up significantly.

“We feel encouraged that our customers share our view, that the time to decarbonize is now,” said Thomas George, the chief commercial officer of DHL Global Forwarding. “A growing number of them are already making sustainability an integral part of their business strategy, and we are pleased to be able to prove to them that with solutions like our GoGreen Plus service using sustainable fuels, transport emissions can already be reduced efficiently today. From today’s perspective, eFuels such as hydrogen and other sustainably produced synthetic fuels will only become increasingly available from 2030 onwards. Until then, we need to scale up sustainable biofuel usage—and this is only possible in a joint effort.”

Novo Nordisk is one of the leading providers of diabetes-care products.

The concern for the health and well-being of the patients it serves is also reflected in the company’s responsible and sustainable business practices, which are part of its Circular for Zero strategy.

“This is yet another step in Novo Nordisk’s continuous support of the development of sustainable aviation fuel,” said Dorethe Nielsen, Novo Nordisk’s vice president of Circular for Zero, corporate environmental strategy. “Our air freight accounts for most of our product-distribution emissions as we provide lifesaving medicines to patients around the world. We want to drive change in this area to help pave the way for other companies to also transition and cut emissions.”

DHL offers its customers to decarbonize their transport through the GoGreen Plus service.

Hereby carriers consume sustainable biofuels on behalf of DHL.

The resulting emission reductions are passed on to DHL and will then be allocated to the shippers.

For this reason, DHL Global Forwarding is piloting a new GHG emissions-accounting framework of the Smart Freight Centre together with other partners.

The idea behind this framework is to transfer the approach of allocating environmental benefits from sustainable fuels to specific customers by decoupling the accounting of the fuels’ environmental attributes from their physical flow.

The framework intends to secure environmental integrity and alignment with existing industry standards, while at the same time providing companies with a practicable accounting framework as a first step towards a general industry standard.

The GoGreen Plus service can be easily booked for example via DHL Global Forwarding’s digital customer platform myDHLi.