DHL and Hapag-Lloyd working together to decarbonize

DHL Global Forwarding has signed an agreement with Hapag-Lloyd for the use of advanced biofuels.

To kick off the collaboration Hapag-Lloyd will ship 18,000 TEUs for DHL using biofuels. This will provide the equivalent of 14,000 tons of Well-to-Wake CO₂-emissions reduction.

Advanced biofuels are based on raw biological materials, such as used cooking oil and other waste products. This material is used to manufacture a fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), which is then mixed with varying proportions of low sulphur fuel oil. Compared to standard fuels, this pure biofuel product lowers greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80 percent.

Demonstration project

The project is being designed to demonstrate the scalability of sustainable transport solutions and the relevance of sustainable fuels in today’s market.

“The decarbonization of heavy transport is an important challenge that the entire industry needs to rethink. That is why we are very proud to have found a partner in Hapag-Lloyd that shares the same ambitions for a climate-neutral world as anchored in the Paris Agreement. Together we want to pave the way for Book & Claim and insetting mechanisms to make it easier for shippers to use sustainable fuels,” says Dominique von Orelli, global head of ocean freight at DHL Global Forwarding.

Insetting refers to projects that offset carbon within the scope of an organization’s own value chain. Book & Claim is an accounting method that keeps trackof the ownership of sustainable fuels, without needing to track the actual physical fuel.

Biofuels development

Hapag-Lloyd has been testing advanced biofuels since 2020 and offers a carbon reduced transport solution utilizing biofuel blends instead of traditional fossil marine fuel oil (MFO). The resulting reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions can be offered as a “Green Product” on a Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) basis and thereby transferred to customers in order to help reduce their Scope 3 emissions.

“We are very happy to have signed this contract on using a considerable amount of advanced biofuel with DHL, as we both share the values and ambition to protect our environment and move towards a greener future. Biofuel will play a significant role in the upcoming years on our path to becoming net-zero carbon by 2045. This project will bring us a step closer to offering our customers biofuel-powered transportation as a commercial product and thereby to supporting them in their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint,” said Danny Smolders, managing director global sales at Hapag-Lloyd.

As part of GoGreen Plus, DHL’s customers are offered solutions for minimizing logistics-related emissions and other environmental impacts along the entire supply chain. The emission reductions also help DHL’s customers to achieve their climate targets.

With the Book & Claim mechanism, DHL can pass on the benefits of lower greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 3 emissions) to its customers. GoGreen Plus is part of the Group’s mid-term sustainability roadmap for 2030 and contributes to the sub-target of having at least 30 percent of fuel requirements covered by sustainable fuels.