The initiative will help to reduce the carbon footprint of both DB Schenker and its customers.
The four defined lighthouse projects - Green Logistics Networks, Green Road, Green Product Rail and Green Terminals - contribute to the group's DB Eco Program, which aims to reduce its specific carbon output worldwide by another 20% between 2006 and 2020.
Under Green Product Rail, the energy required to transport freight by rail can, at the customer's request, be replaced by electricity generated from renewable energy sources in Germany - at a nominal additional cost. The relevant calculations are performed by means of the online tool EcoTransIT. DB will also feed this amount of electricity into the grid of Deutsche Bahn, so that carbon emissions are eliminated.
Green Logistics Networks covers DB Schenker's close-meshed global multi-modal transportation network, including trucks, rail freight carriers, ships and aircraft. DB Schenker combines the strengths of each mode of transportation in order to provide a more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly overall product to its customers. An intelligent modal split, for instance, links the flexibility of road haulage with cost-efficient and energy-efficient rail transportation. DB Schenker's environmental experts carry out detailed carbon footprint calculations and advise customers on ways to reduce carbon emissions.
Green Road is a lighthouse project that combines all the activities carried out to achieve sustainable land transportation by road. In this context, it is mainly the mix of many specific environmentally friendly measures that helps to reduce the pollution load from road haulage. These measures include the training of thousands of truck drivers in energy-efficient driving methods, as well as making greater use of rail freight transportation services in European land transportation, improving the capacity utilisation of trucks, optimising and successively modernising the truck fleet and using improved fuels.
DB Schenker also plans to reduce its carbon output in stationary facilities such as logistics centres and terminals. The purpose of the Green Terminals lighthouse project is to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon output in existing terminals, workshops and warehouses, and also - and more importantly - to examine and implement sustainable measures in new buildings and when existing buildings are modernised.
