Deutsche Post DHL Group is introducing a global DHL Green Carrier Certification to reward road transport subcontractors for their efforts to become more sustainable.
As part of its sustainability roadmap, Deutsche Post DHL Group aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 29 million tons by 2030 and net-zero by 2050. Ground transport accounts for 21 per cent of the Group’s total CO2e emissions.
Accordingly, in addition to electrification of the last mile and investment in alternative drives and fuels in its own fleet, another important lever is the scope of sustainable transport services provided by the Group’s service partners.
By certifying its green subcontractors, the world’s leading logistics provider underlines its responsibility in terms of sustainability and climate change while at the same time creating the necessary transparency for its stakeholders.
“Decarbonizing trade lanes and supply chains is a joint effort and has to be built on transparency and collaboration. With our DHL Green Carrier Certification, we have implemented uniform and transparent criteria when it comes to cooperating with our ground carriers going forward. This approach brings us all another step closer to our ambitious goal of true climate-neutral transport,” Andreas Mündel, Senior Vice President Strategy & Operation Programs at Deutsche Post DHL Group.
Visibility on transport carriers’ emissions is one of the biggest challenges and key in delivering Science Based Targets.
To provide this, the DHL divisions Express, Freight and Supply Chain jointly developed a standardized program to access the green performance and award the various partners providing ground transport services to the divisions.
The solution allows DHL to effectively manage relationships and reduce emissions: The green carrier certification program helps to identify subcontractors that are already contributing to sustainable logistics, while encouraging even more investment in green technologies to reduce our as well as our carriers and our customers CO2 footprint.
In this way, DHL not only can increase transparency for all stakeholders but also become more sustainable in road freight transportation.
Among other things, the carriers should have an environmental or sustainability strategy in place, measure their carbon footprint, and be transparent with their data.
In addition to basic technologies such as low rolling resistance tires, aerodynamic enhancements and idle cut-off, leading green carriers also work with advanced green technologies such as sustainable fuels and alternative drives.
All relevant information will be obtained via a dedicated online platform and are verified in an internal audit process. Based on the findings, the subcontractors are ranked in the four categories ‘Pass’, ‘Good’, ‘Excellent’ and ‘Outstanding’.
The gained transparency on the environmental performance will help offer customers greener services and create an additional decision point for future transport tenders and assignments.
Since the beginning of 2021, the Group’s road freight provider DHL Freight alone has already surveyed more than 600 selected service partners from Germany, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands on their sustainability performance.
One of the first carriers that got certified by DHL Freight is the pan European Lithuania based road freight provider Girteka Logistics.
“We are proud to be one of the first forwarding companies to receive this certificate. It encourages us to continue focusing more on alternative drive technologies in the future,” says Pavel Kveten, COO Europe at Girteka Logistics.
DHL Supply Chain, the contract logistics provider, is currently rolling out the initiative via the online platform in selected countries and regions.
The full worldwide rollout will follow in 2022. This will be an important contributor to successfully reduce CO2e emissions – next to DHL Supply Chain’s commitment to provide CO2 free warehousing and decarbonize own fleet across the globe.
The international express service provider DHL Express has included the certification as part of the tendering process for its ground-based transport and has received consistently positive feedback from carriers.
The DHL divisions will also survey subcontractors in other countries and award them in the coming months.
DHL Global Forwarding successfully implemented a Green Carrier Certification program for its air and ocean freight transport services already ten years ago, which flows seamlessly into the Group’s program.
The introduction of the DHL Green Carrier Certification is one of many initiatives that Deutsche Post DHL Group has launched as part of its sustainability strategy.
To reduce CO2 emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, the Group is investing €7 billion in climate-neutral logistics solutions through 2030.
The sustainability roadmap includes, for example, programs for the purchase of sustainable fuels in air and ocean freight, the electrification of the last mile delivery and building climate-neutral logistics sites and warehouses for operations.
