DHL partners with Schneider Electric for greener transport

PRESS RELEASE

• Pilot projects significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Bonn, January 31, 2024: DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Group’s air and ocean freight specialist, has partnered with Schneider Electric, the market leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, to pilot a new multimodal transportation solution for greater sustainability and efficiency. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is used here, so that transport routes are not only more agile, but also reduce the environmental impact of supply chains at the same time.

Together with Schneider Electric, DHL Global Forwarding has established two innovative multimodal transport links between Singapore and North America and between India and North America to reduce Scope 3 emissions in air freight. In total, Schneider Electric plans to design and implement eight global multimodal connections with its logistics partners, which can be deployed on demand.

Schneider Electric estimates that by combining air and ocean freight, these new connections will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of these regional modes of transport by up to 40% compared to regular air freight. Since the launch of the pilot in March 2023, both the Singapore-North America and India-North America connections, operated in partnership with DHL Global Forwarding, have achieved up to 20% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

For many companies, air freight is an important part of their global supply chains, even though it generates more greenhouse gas emissions than ocean freight. While SAF can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is much more expensive than conventional aviation fuel. The use of ocean freight, which is usually cheaper, results in savings that can be spent on the purchase of SAF, creating a further reduction in emissions.

Multimodal transportation solutions are widely used in logistics to increase the resilience and agility of supply chains. So far, however, they have not been used primarily to reduce a company’s Scope 3 emissions.

The new pilots from Schneider Electric and DHL Global Forwarding have allowed the two partners to test multimodal transport as a business-as-usual process as needed. Orders are delivered flexibly, either by air freight or by multimodal transport, depending on capacity, air freight peaks, margins, customer offers and stock availability. Building on this end-to-end capability, the model will be further enhanced by DHL Global Forwarding offering the use of SAF through its GoGreen Plus service, which can mean up to 90% less greenhouse gas emissions in transport. This gives Schneider Electric the flexibility to plan, decide, procure, execute and manage in the model, creating a more resilient and flexible supply chain.

“Through our GoGreen Plus service, we offer our customers sustainable transport solutions, including the use of SAF. Our partnership with Schneider Electric is instrumental in driving positive change and making sustainable logistics a reality. At DHL, we have set ourselves the goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions to 29 million metric tons of CO₂e by 2030. To achieve this goal, we are investing €7 billion in environmentally friendly operations, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to a greener future,” said Thomas George, Chief Commercial Officer, DHL Global Forwarding.

“At Schneider Electric, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do and drives us to innovate for the future,” said Mourad Tamoud, EVP Global Supply Chain at Schneider Electric. “We can’t do this alone: partnerships with our supply chain ecosystem and strategic partners like DHL are essential. We hope that others will be inspired by these opportunities so that together we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In line with its Net Zero roadmap, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative , Schneider Electric is committed to achieving an absolute carbon reduction of 25% across its entire value chain by 2030.