GLS today opened a ‘green depot’ at Bornheim, near Cologne, after just seven months of constructionwork and following investment of €13 million in land, buildings and equipment.
The new facility went live today without any operational problems after the last parcels atthe old depot in nearby Bornheim-Sechtem were processed on Friday afternoon, GLS Germany announced.“There was no negative impact on the parcel sorting thanks to the fast relocation,” said KlausConrad, Managing Director of GLS Germany. “That was particularly important for us due to the highshipment volumes during the pre-Christmas season.”
The new depot is one of the largest GLS facilities in Germany. Up to 55,000 parcels can besorted daily in the 6,000 sqm operational centre, which has 170 truck docking doors. Some 220people work at the site, which can be easily expanded into a regional distribution centre.
GLS said it has implemented the same ecological aspects in Bornheim as at the first ‘greendepot’ at Vaihingen-Enz, southern Germany. Use of heat pump heating as the primary heating sourcereduces CO2 emissions, rainwater is collected and re-used and mostly fully recyclable materialswere used to construct the buildings.
