Henkel, a German industrial and consumer goods company, has expanded its relationship with DHL to use sustainable marine fuel (SMF) for shipping Henkel’s products, especially from Europe.
The agreement covers around 9,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of ocean freight to be transported with DHL’s sustainability program, GoGreen Plus, in 2025. Using SMF can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on a well-to-wake basis by approximately 4,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). That’s a reduction of around 85% of GHGs on the main haul compared to conventional marine fuel. The emission reductions will be verified by an independent certification body, SGS.
“Working with DHL Global Forwarding on sustainable transport solutions is an important part of our strategy to reduce emissions within our logistics processes,” said Ondrej Slezacek, Global Category Manager Sea & Air Freight, Henkel. “Simultaneously, it helps accelerate the overall transition to low-emission logistics in our industry.”
The two companies are already collaborating on projects to reduce emissions, for example through transport mode optimization and shipment consolidation. In this new collaboration, ocean carriers utilize waste- and residues-based maritime fuels (so-called Sustainable Marine Fuel, or SMF) on behalf of DHL Global Forwarding. DHL Global Forwarding then allocates the resulting emissions reductions to Henkel via Book-and-Claim.
Book-and-Claim systems operate as a kind of credit swap. Many shipping companies encounter barriers to using sustainable marine fuels instead of fossil fuels. One barrier is that there are many types of these fuels and ships can only run on the ones they’re designed for. Another is that all the fuels, which are manufactured using renewable energy and made with materials such as captured CO2, e-methane, hydrogen or residual bio material from forestry and agriculture, are in short supply. And not all ports have all of them available. Transporting sustainable fuels from one place to another would cancel out the emissions reductions. Book-and-Claim allows a company that uses regular fossil fuels to book or purchase sustainable fuel for another shipper that can use the fuel. This increases the market for sustainable fuels and allows the company that bought the fuels or services to claim credit for the emissions reduction.
DHL can use it to directly replace fossil fuels with sustainable fuels within their network and allocate environmental benefits to paying customers–even when their shipments are not physically transported with the assets using these fuels. DHL Global Forwarding will utilize Sustainable Marine Fuels (SMF) for the majority of Henkel’s ocean freight volumes.
“This expansion of our partnership is another milestone in our joint decarbonization journey,” said Amanda Rasmussen, Chief Commercial Officer at DHL Global Forwarding. “By combining Henkel’s ambitious climate strategy with our sustainable logistics solutions, we are demonstrating that progress toward decarbonizing supply chains is possible today. We hope this agreement will inspire other companies to transition to low-emission transportation services using Sustainable Marine Fuel.”
