DHL “carbon neutral” service grows by 1.9bn shipments
Deutsche Post DHL expanded its “carbon neutral” shipping service GoGreen by 1.9bn shipments across the world last year, it revealed today. The German logistics giant issued its annual Corporate Responsibility Report showing that its initiative has now provided carbon offsets to cover shipments representing more than 270,000 tons of climate change causing carbon emissions since 2006.
Carbon offsets allow a company to fund environmental improvement projects that theoretically reduce carbon emissions equivalent to the amount generated by shipments being “offset”.
Last year was the biggest year yet for the GoGreen initiative, with 2011 alone seeing 134,000 tons of carbon emissions offset.
The year saw the GoGreen service expanded considerably around the world, including new availability in India for shippers paying a premium fee, while in Germany domestic DHL parcel services went carbon neutral free of charge.
Deutsche Post DHL is aiming to improve its overall carbon efficiency by 30% by 2020, and has already reached its interim target, originally set for 2012, two years early.
Frank Appel, the company’s chief executive, said today that one of the key challenges has been balancing the requirements of a listed company in terms of economic success and social objectives.
But he said: “Companies that do not embrace corporate responsibility as an integral part of their business model will not be as successful in the long run.”
Reponsibility
“The importance of corporate responsibility has increased further in our company”
Deutsche Post DHL has about 470,000 employees in 220 countries and territories, with four operating divisions – mail, express, global forwarding & freight, and supply chain – generating revenues of EUR 53bn a year.
As well as highlighting its environmental efforts, this year’s Corporate Responsibility Report updated on the company’s disaster management efforts, through its GoHelp initiative, and its education work under the GoTeach initiative.
The GoHelp initiative has seen training programmes set up at four airports in Bangladesh and Indonesia to help staff prepare for disasters. DHL employees were deployed to disaster areas including New Zealand and El Salvador. And, a special Global Volunteer Day in September saw 60,000 employees in 120 countries participating in charitable projects.
DHL’s GoTeach initiative saw education projects carried out in places like Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Romania, South Africa, Vietnam, along with support for partners like Teach for All and Teach For All.
Rainer Wend, the executive vice president of corporate public policy and corporate responsibility at Deutsche Post DHL, said the GoGreen, GoHelp and GoTeach programmes were continually evolving as part of a “Living Responsibly” strategy.
“The importance of corporate responsibility has increased further in our company. Customers, investors and international organisations recognise this too,” he said.
Deutsche Post has been holding a Corporate Responsibility Day today, for the second time, at its headquarters in Bonn, Germany. The day’s events include various panels and workshops discussing the relevance, trends and challenges for sustainable corporate management.
While last year’s day focused on the topic of energy efficiency and equal opportunity, this year’s event is centred around the challenges of demographic change, the company said.
