When two ambitious partners join forces, a lot can be achieved. DHL Freight and Manitou Group are both pursuing challenging sustainability goals and have teamed up on a joint project to reduce CO2e emissions in road freight. After less than a year, the two project partners can already celebrate a major success: more than 1,000,000 sustainable road freight kilometers in Europe.
Saving 80 Percent of CO2e Emissions Compared to 2023
On December 1, 2023, DHL Freight and Manitou Group entered into a joint commitment to reduce the environmental impact of their road transport operations in Europe. On January 30, 2024, a DHL truck running on hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) drove the first sustainable kilometer for Manitou Group. Thus, DHL Freight and Manitou Group translated their declaration of intent into concrete actions within a very short period of time.
Barely a year later, an impressive milestone was reached on the road to sustainable road freight: the two companies celebrated the one millionth eco-friendly kilometer driven by DHL Freight for Manitou Group. This also represents an 80 percent reduction of the carbon footprint compared to diesel.
Manitou Group
As a world reference in the handling, aerial work platform and earth moving sectors, Manitou Group’s mission is to improve working conditions, safety and performance around the world, while protecting people and their environment. Through its flagship brands – Manitou and Gehl – the group designs, produces, distributes and services equipment for construction, agriculture and industry. By placing innovation at the heart of its development, Manitou Group constantly seeks to bring value to all its stakeholders. Through the expertise of its network of 800 dealers, the group works more closely with its customers every day. Staying true to its roots, Manitou Group is headquartered in France. It achieved a 2024 turnover of €2.7 billion and brings together 6,000 talented people worldwide, all driven by a shared passion.
Two Companies and One Goal
DHL Freight and Manitou Group have been working together since 2014 with DHL Freight providing transport solutions for the global machine manufacturer. The collaboration goes beyond pure business interests. Both companies are strongly committed to environmentally friendly, low-emission, and resource-conserving business practices to preserve the foundations for the economic world of tomorrow.
GoGreen by DHL and DHL Freight
The entire DHL Group, including DHL Freight, is determined to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. The DHL Sustainability Roadmap also involves our customers. To make them part of the net-zero goal and give them the opportunity to effectively reduce their own Scope 3 emissions, DHL Freight introduced GoGreen Plus Services in 2022.
By 2030, the roadmap aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to less than 29 million tons of CO2e per year, increase the share of sustainable fuels in the fleet fuel mix to more than 30 percent, raise the share of electric vehicles to 60 percent, and offer sustainable alternatives for all important products and services.
Manitou Group’s Low Carbon Pathway
For its part, Manitou Group has outlined its own Low Carbon Path in 2022. Two main objectives for 2030 are being defined. The first objective concerns the reduction of our direct and indirect carbon emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) by 46.2 % taking 2019 as the reference year. Our second objective is to reduce CO2 emissions by 33.7 kg CO2 per hour of use of our scope 3, which concerns the use of machines sold, purchase of goods, and freight (also based on the reference year 2019).
Both the DHL Sustainability Roadmap and Manitou Group’s Low Carbon Pathway have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard is the world’s only reference framework for companies to align their Net-Zero goals with the latest climate science.
How You Can Benefit from GoGreen Plus
Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time – and it affects all of us. However, it is not equally easy for every industry and every company to reduce their respective ecological footprint. With GoGreen Plus, we offer you the opportunity to reduce emissions in a simple way thanks to insetting – exactly where they occur. Your investment goes 100% into the use of green technologies within our network.
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Other DHL Freight Sustainability Initiatives
DHL Freight offers a wide range of environmentally friendly road freight solutions: for instance, emissions-reduced transport, such as our cooperation with Manitou Group using sustainable fuels. These fuels are produced from biological materials including plants, algae, animal fat or waste, and can include biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel (HVO), as well as advanced fuels such as hydrogen and synthetic fuels made from renewable electricity. We also support the pharmaceutical companies Alexion and Lilly in this way.
Another important field of action is e-mobility, for example for Parker Hannifin or with electric trucks in the Netherlands. We are also keeping an eye on bio-CNG and bio-LNG and are running pilot projects in hydrogen technology, for example with the Paul Hydrogen Power Truck. Open to all technologies, we seek the best solutions to achieve our ambitious sustainability goals and play an active role in shaping the green logistics of the future.
