Deutsche Post DHL is co-operating with other freight logistics companies including TNT and UPSto measure the CO2 emissions of sub-contracted road freight carriers in Europe, a company manager
told CEP-Research.Sub-contractors are responsible for up to 80 per cent of Deutsche Post DHL’s overall emissionsand are thus vital to achieving CO2 reduction targets, Katharina Tomoff, head of the company’sGoGreen programme, said in an interview. The group wants to be 30 per cent more CO2 efficient by2020 and already achieved the interim target of a 10 per cent efficiency improvement last year.
To improve measurement of European road freight CO2 emissions, DP DHL last year set up aEuropean working group together with TNT, UPS, three shippers Heineken, IKEA and Kraft Foods andother multinational companies to launch a standardised system for collecting and reporting CO2emissions from road freight transport in Europe.
“We need a neutral industry standard,” Tomoff explained. “We have about 30 interested companiesand the combination of logistics companies and large shippers is great. I hope that we have thefirst results in about one year.”
The group, inspired by the successful public-private SmartWay partnership in the USA, plans tocreate a central database hosted by a neutral, independent body to calculate, validate andbenchmark the environmental performance of transportation companies based on their actual data.
According to its 2010 Sustainability Report, the company improved its direct CO2 efficiency to69 points last year compared to the 2007 basis of 100 points, thus already meeting the 2020 targetof a 30 per cent improvement in CO2 efficiency. Sub-contractor efficiency improved to 93 points,leaving the overall improvement at 88 points.
The efficiency index measures CO2 emissions per shipment or sqm used, and a lower rise inemissions than in shipment volumes thus amounts to an efficiency improvement. DP DHL’s direct CO2emissions (Scopes 1 and 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol) totalled 5 million tonnes last year, downfrom 5.6 million in 2009. However, overall emissions including sub-contractors (Scope 3) rose to28.4 million tonnes from 24.7 million.
DP DHL is also improving CO2 transparency for customers with the introduction of a “CarbonDashboard” IT application. Customers can enter their shipping data and are shown the resulting CO2emissions. The information can then be used to optimise the supply chain and reduce emissions,Tomoff explained.
The extension of GoGreen shipping from Mail and Express to Global Forwarding and Freight is animportant step, she pointed out. GoGreen shipments, which totalled 1.7 billion last year across thegroup, represent a small but rising proportion of overall shipments, she noted. “This is one of ourfastest-growing products.” While about 5-10 per cent of Mail volumes were GoGreen shipments, theproportion was higher in some Express markets, reaching as much as 40 per cent in Scandinavia, shepointed out. Multimodal products such as DHL Global Forwarding’s SeAir service also helped reduceCO2 emissions by as much as 50-70 per cent for an air shipment that partly used sea transport, sheadded.
DP DHL supports the idea of joint procurement of electric vehicles by logistics companies as amethod of reducing emissions, Tomoff said. The recent launch of an “all-green” fleet of 30 electricvans and 50 hybrid trucks in New York City would be an important practical test. Following thelaunch of a company-sponsored CO2 emissions offsetting project in Lesotho last year, the companyplans to add more such projects, she added.
