DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has signed an agreement with Hapag-Lloyd, a leading worldwide liner shipping company, for the use of advanced biofuels. As an initial step, Hapag-Lloyd will ship 18,000 TEU of DHL’s volume using advanced biofuels—equivalent to a reduction of 14,000 tons of Well-to-Wake CO₂-emisisons.

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) (biodiesel), which is then mixed with varying proportions of low sulfur fuel oil. Compared to standard fuels, this biofuel product lowers greenhouse gas emissions by more than 80%.

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.

—Danny Smolders, Managing Director Global Sales at Hapag-Lloyd

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.

DHL’s GoGreen Plus service paves the way to transition to clean and sustainable transportation. As part of GoGreen Plus, DHL’s customers are offered various solutions for minimizing logistics-related emissions and other environmental impacts along the entire supply chain. The remaining part of the supply chain is made climate neutral by full lifecycle emission compensation.

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.

The product offering 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% of fuel requirements covered by sustainable fuels. To reduce CO₂ emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, the Group will spend €7 billion in sustainable fuel and clean technologies by 2030.