Commercial, Sourcing Renewables  -  October 20, 2023

DHL Express Signs SAFc Agreement

DHL Express signed a long-term strategic agreement to accelerate the decarbonization of aviation logistics through the purchase of approximately 668 million liters of Sustainable Aviation Fuel via sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc). 

The seven-year contract, to run through 2030, is the one of the longest and largest SAFc agreements in the aviation industry to date and was signed with  World Energy, an SAF producer and low-carbon solutions provider.

The agreement is expected to reduce approximately 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the aviation fuel lifecycle and demonstrates the company's progress toward lowering DHL Group's annual GHG emissions to below 29 million tons CO2e in 2030 across Scopes 1, 2 and 3.

"DHL Express is firmly dedicated to pioneering a sustainable future in aviation logistics," said John Pearson, CEO DHL Express, in a statement. "By partnering with World Energy and confirming this milestone agreement, we are taking another concrete leap towards minimizing our carbon footprint and contributing to a more sustainable future. We want to inspire more suppliers to accelerate industry-wide production and adoption of SAF."

With SAFc, the fuel's environmental attributes are separated from the fuel itself using a "Book & Claim" chain of custody model. The Book & Claim approach enhances transparency and accountability of sustainable fuels by ensuring that the emission reductions associated with each credit are accurately transferred and verified by a third party. 

This allows DHL Express to purchase SAFc, utilize the associated emission reductions, and extend the environmental attributes to its customers through the GoGreen Plus service. 

SAFc delivered through Book & Claim also helps minimize both logistical costs and emissions as the fuel does not need to be shipped around the world. This helps make SAFc the most efficient way to decarbonize aviation. 

All of World Energy SAFc for DHL will meet rigorous sustainability certification standards from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). In addition, all volumes will be traced through an independent registry to ensure traceability of claims related to SAFc. The fuel itself will be supplied to Los Angeles area airports, close to World Energy's production facility in Paramount, California.

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