DPDHL Group aims to achieve zero net emissions by 2050. To reach that goal the Group’s divisions are introducing products and services that make delivery greener. DHL Freight’s Skicka Grönt is one of them.
Climate offsetting is important for sustainable development, but climate investments are needed to drive the shift towards a sustainable transport system. The industry must transition to fossil-free transport or new technologies, such as electricity, Bio-LNG or hydrogen. But the switch calls for investments in climate-efficient vehicles and eco-friendly fuels, some of which are still under development, and can be expensive and risky. A climate-smart vehicle today can cost up to four times more than a "regular" one and fossil-free fuels are often more expensive than standard diesel - if there is no state funding.
Skicka Grönt – or Send Green – is a service that will help finance the additional cost for these investments. Together with customers, DHL Freight is compensating Swedish hauliers for the extra cost of investing in more expensive, climate-efficient vehicles and fossil-free fuels.
Simple and effective
The concept is simple. DHL signs agreements with carriers who want to invest in more expensive, climate-smart vehicles and fossil-free fuels and reimburses them for the additional cost per kilometer over the life of the vehicle. Customers currently pay 5 SEK (€0.49) per package and 49 SEK (€4.82) per pallet for the service.
“When our customers choose Skicka Grönt, the equivalent freight is reserved in the green part of our transport network – using the same principle as green electricity, but for transport."
Janina Gröhn
Sustainable Affairs Specialist at DHL Freight Sweden
The whole process is checked and verified annually by an independent external auditor, which means Freight knows exactly how many kilometers of green transport it achieves, with what technology and the impact it has.
450 customers signed up in 2020, and over 100,000 shipments have been sent climate-neutrally. By 2025 there should be more than one million shipments in Sweden. Skicka Grönt is planned to be rolled out by DHL Freight in other countries In 2021.