DPD has opened a new €20 million environmentally-friendly parcel depot in Nuremberg, southernGermany, doubling its sorting capacity in the city.
The new facility on a 60,000 sqm site in the city’s Bayernhafen district includes a 37,000sqm sorting terminal and replaces the smaller previous depot in the Bavarian city. The depot hascapacity to sort up to 15,000 parcels per hour, which is more than double that of the former site.
The firm, which employs some 380 staff at the depot, plans to take on more workers at thefacility as volumes increase.
“This investment of €20 million makes Nuremberg an even more important hub in theinternational DPD network,” said DPD CEO Arnold Schroven. “In addition, theenvironmentally-friendly construction of the Nuremberg facility will act as a model for DPD’sfuture building projects.”
In addition to the Nuremberg area the depot serves the entire region, from Bamberg in thenorth to Ingolstadt in the south, Amberg in the east and Neustadt a. d. Aisch in the west.Moreover, the Nuremberg facility has always been a major hub within the international DPD network,acting for example as a centre for cross-border shipments to the Czech Republic or Italy.
DPD said that by applying sustainable building technology in the construction of the newfacility it has also committed itself to environmental protection. The heating and air-conditioningof the office building is implemented by geothermal energy, while the gables of the sorting hallare completely made of glass, which reduces the energy requirements for electric lighting. A powermanagement system ensures that savings potentials are identified and decisively implemented. Inaddition the roofs of the buildings are ready for the installation of solar panels, which willprovide the energy for the depot.
More generally, DPD pointed out that it has been applying sustainable transport operations inNuremberg for a long time now. For example, in the city’s pedestrian precinct the company has beenmaking deliveries with electric vehicles ever since the year 2000, and in the year 2009 theone-millionth parcel within this project was delivered to its consignee. And in long-distancetransport, too, DPD attaches great value to sustainability, with parcel transport operationsbetween Nuremberg and Hamburg being implemented entirely by rail since the autumn of 2010. Comparedto conventional transport by road this saves an annual 200 tonnes of CO2. The new depot has evenbetter rail links than before.
Throughout Europe DPD has set itself the target of continuously reducing CO2 emissions and,from July 2012, will be offering CO2-neutral transport for all parcels on its main European marketsunder its new ‘totalzero’ strategy.
“The construction methods used at the Nuremberg depot are an excellent example of how weintend in future to reduce the emissions caused by DPD”, Schroven added. “Thanks to pilot projectsin the fields of electro-mobility and rail transport Nuremberg has for many years been a modelfacility in terms of sustainability.”
