Supply Chains Today Moving Towards More Sustainable Logistics

During the e-Commerce & Logistics session of the Future of Logistics conference moderated by Lars Jensen a member of the audience asked the panellists how they were managing their energy costs and driving the sustainability agenda of their companies.

Madhav Kurup, Regional CEO of Hellman Worldwide Logistics MESA said that as a company Hellman has tried to make its operations as sustainable as possible by using solar power at its offices and locations in the Middle East to increase energy efficiency.

Mr Kurup added that Hellman also tried to make sure that its vendor maintained their trucks efficiently. “In Europe we do measure our carbon emissions and try to bring it down.” Mr Kurup said that in the Middle East Hellman still had to catch on its sustainability agenda and it was still early days here.

To Ensure Smooth Flow of Cargo More Ownership is Required at Every Stage

Tobias Maier, CEO MENA, Saloodo! said that DHL launched its Environmentally Sustainable Goals (ESG) strategy in March of 2021. They have started measuring the energy costs of moving cargo and have set a goal to become carbon neutral in all its operations by 2050.

“As logistics company that is quite a challenge,” said Mr Maier adding that DHL wanted to reduce its absolute emissions of CO2 from around 73 million tonnes today to 29 million tonnes while still growing its business.

Mr Maier also informed that DHL had ordered its first electric planes to be operated in the US. DHL already had a fleet of 20,000 electric vehicles in Germany and was also looking at ways to make its buildings more energy efficient.

Mr Maier said that sustainability has become a priority at DHL and from the coming year 30% of management targets will be related to DHL’s ESG targets. The company was also trying to use data to make its e-commerce deliveries more sustainable by finding the most optimal flows of cargo and use ships instead of airplanes wherever possible.

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