Deutsche Post Group DHL has announced that it’s offsetting carbon dioxide emissions for letter mail transport in 2022 at no extra charge. DHL noted that for the past decade, it has transported all of its parcels for its customers with climate-friendly “GoGreen” service and that, starting immediately, it’s also offsetting all CO2 emissions that are generated by its mail transport operations. The company’s GoGreen option was subject to a charge up until recently. It was also only available to business customers with a shipping volume of a minimum of 50,000 items per year.
Deutsche Post stated that it will offset any unavoidable CO2 emissions that are a result of transporting mail and has investments in internationally recognized and certified climate protection projects. The company noted that its operations handled 6.5 billion letters in 2020, which translates to an offset of over 300,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Domestic advertising mail and press product customers will still have the option of ordering GoGreen as an additional service.
Ole Nordhoff, Chief Marketing Officer at Deutsche Post, shared that protecting the climate is a core focus issue for the company, which is notable since the company’s focus is transporting stuff around the globe, a high-emissions activity.
“Climate protection is a core focus issue for Deutsche Post. Already today we have, by far, the largest fleet of electric delivery vans, electric-powered bicycles, and cargo bikes providing the industry’s most climate-friendly mail and parcel delivery service. And for years, our parcel customers have responded very positively to the climate-friendly shipping we have provided for all private-customer parcels. Now we are introducing this to our mail operations as well and making our entire mail transport greener. This also helps our business customers make their mail correspondence with end customers greener.”
A Green Shipping Idea
I’ve noticed different companies that I buy from offer a “green” or climate-friendly shipping option. Von Holzhausen is one such company, and the way they packaged their products to be more climate-friendly has inspired me in my own shipping of jewelry. I make and sell handmade jewelry and I always recycle the bubble wrap and other supplies, such as the packing peanuts or foam that come with them. I also recycle plastic materials or repurpose them — try to find a good use for them instead of just tossing them.
However, reading that press release gave me an idea. What if we charged more for shipping a non-green way. Like, instead of charging for a GoGreen type of service, charge more for those who are not using that service and make the GoGreen shipping either free or the lowest cost option?
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