DHL Express and Standard Chartered Partner to co-Invest in SAF
(Bonn, Singapore) International express shipping leader DHL Express and Standard Chartered bank have signed a strategic partnership via DHL Express’s GoGreen Plus service, agreeing to co-invest in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by enabling Standard Chartered to balance CO2 emissions linked to its upstream logistics with high quality Verified Emission Reduction (VER) carbon credits beginning on January 1, 2024.
Khuresh Faizullabhoy, Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer, Trade at Standard Chartered and Yung C. Ooi, Senior Vice President for Commercial, Asia Pacific, DHL Express (from left to right); photo courtesy of DHL.
Standard Chartered is among the first banks to use the DHL GoGreen Plus service globally, and has committed to becoming net zero in its own operations by 2025 and its financed emissions by 2050, according to a press release from DHL today.
Through its cooperation with DHL, Standard Chartered is supporting the logistics provider to scale the use of SAF, which - compared with traditional jet fuel - can reduce lifecycle emissions of typical aviation fuel by up to 80 percent. In turn, DHL expects to see its own related emissions reduced by up to 30 percent in year one (against a 2019 baseline) with an expected incremental reduction of seven percent year on year from 2025, according to today’s release.
Standard Chartered estimates that 3,780 tonnes CO2e will be saved between 2024 and 2030; it will receive a monthly report on the carbon footprint of its shipments as part of GoGreen Plus and quarterly certification of the emission reduction achieved by an independent auditor, per DHL.
"The partnership between Standard Chartered and DHL has been going strong for more than two decades. They were the first bank to adopt our GoGreen service in 2011 and are now working with us to make international express shipping more sustainable," said Yung C. Ooi, Senior Vice President for Commercial, Asia Pacific, DHL Express. “The fact that we are offering the GoGreen Plus service through the use of SAF in our international network lays the foundation for this. We hope this agreement will inspire other companies to transition to low-emission transportation services using sustainable aviation fuel."
Khuresh Faizullabhoy, Managing Director & Chief Operating Officer, Trade at Standard Chartered, commented: "As a leading provider of trade finance, our customers entrust us to handle their crucial trade & shipping documents to safeguard their business interests and ensure seamless transactional delivery. Whilst the digitization of trade documentation is progressing, through this agreement to scale the use of SAF with our logistics partner DHL Express, we will jointly drive down emissions that would otherwise be generated from this essential service. This is a win-win for our customers and in line with our own commitment to delivering net zero across Standard Chartered."
DHL launched its GoGreen Plus service, which is part of DHL Group’s goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, in 2023 in order to allow its customers to reduce the CO2e emissions associated with their air freight via SAF. GoGreen Plus is made possible by three of DHL’s most significant SAF contracts with BP, Neste, and World Energy, per today’s press release.
Air freight accounts for about 90 percent of the DHL’s carbon footprint, so sustainable air transportation solutions are crucial for greener logistics, per DHL.