Delivering a greener future?
At a CEO forum in Germany on 29 September, Deutsche Post DHL’s Frank Appel will discuss his company’s new study analysing customer needs in the year 2020 and beyond, Post&Parcel investigates its views on climate change and CO2 reduction. After more than a year in the making, Deutsche Post DHL has released a study exploring future trends called “Delivering Tomorrow – Customer Needs in 2020.” It envisages a “broad, technology-driven transformation in customer habits and expectations; and the emergence of China as an economic and technological leader”. Furthermore, with a wide range of governments, organisations, and eco-friendly bodies placing an ever-growing importance on climate change, it is no surprise that the Deutsche Post DHL study has put such prominence on the environment. This very much moves hand-in-hand with the company’s Sustainability Report 2009.
At the heart of their Sustainability Report 2009 is their GoGreen initiative, launched in April 2008 and described as “confirmation of our commitment to change our ways”. Under the supervision of a team of universal specialists, the GoGreen programme has been aiming to: increase the company’s CO2 efficiency – mostly through fleet optimisation, energy efficiency and the introduction of new, greener technologies; raise awareness of climate protection amongst employees; generate value – by helping their customers assess their carbon footprint; be more transparent about their own carbon footprint; and to prepare for regulatory changes in the future.
“Climate change is already widely perceived as one of the greatest challenges facing humankind,” announces Delivering Tomorrow. The study participants predict that, in the years to come, “purchasing decisions will no longer be based solely on brand, quality and price. In the future, the environmental impact of products and services will play a major role.” Quite a statement to make, and one that, if true, would see planet earth benefit from it.
Appel also predicted the environmental revolution that lies in wait. He said: “If you look at the label on a glass of jam today, you’ll see it lists the number of calories. But in 2020, likely labels will also indicate how much carbon dioxide was emitted in production and transport of the product.” The report goes on to say: “To a certain extent, consumers will be willing to pay more for ecologically sound products and services. With less environmentally conscious providers striving to overcome their competitive disadvantage as quickly as possible, consumer behaviour will effectively bring about a steady improvement in environmental standards.”
The study also highlights the difference in responses from the East to the West, citing the example that Asian experts are far more “inclined to believe in the worldwide emergence of eco-friendly ‘zero-emissions cities’ than their colleagues in Europe, Africa, and America.” It also states that Asian experts believe that customers are prepared to accept longer delivery times for their orders in the interests of more climate-friendly logistics.
So with the eco-trends marked out by Delivering Tomorrow, Post&Parcel quizzed Ingemar Persson, secretary general at PostEurop, whether the Posts are currently doing enough to help battle the effects of climate change. He said: “I guess we never can say [they are] doing enough. There are constantly new solutions coming up for how to impact less on the climate, but certainly many operators are doing a lot. In PostEurop we launched our Green House Gas Reduction Programme in July 2007, aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 10% until 2012. We got some 10-12 operators signing up from the start and then further 6-8 after. Most of those operators already had advanced programmes in place regarding the environment. Most of them also represent the Western Europe. The last few months we had a break through with 6-8 Eastern European operators joining, saying they want to grow their business in a responsible and sustainable way.”
The columns of Post&Parcel often contain stories of postal organisations pushing out environmentally friendly initiatives in a bid to be greener – it seems that the world of post has woken up to the fact that they can play a key role in preserving the health of the planet, or if not to that scale then at least set a sterling example to other sectors alike. If this is to be achieved then they will have to keep delivering today to make a difference to tomorrow.
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