DHL has today launched the DHL Carbon Calculator. With the introduction of the Carbon Calculator, DHL now allows its customers to calculate, free of charge, transport-related emissions for almost all shipment sizes and modes of transport. The calculation is carried out online based on intelligent algorithms. "While many other computational tools provide only a rough estimate of the transport emissions and the route, the Carbon Calculator taps into real logistics data," explains Kathrin Brost, Vice President, Green Strategy and Customer Intelligence at DHL Global Forwarding, which has tested the Carbon Calulator together with customers.

Those data include the route to the nearest airport or harbor, the main leg by air or sea and the "last mile" in the destination country. To determine the level of emissions, the DHL Carbon Calculator uses data from the DHL Carbon Accounting and Controlling department. The computational methodology reflects the recognized Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards, the European Standard EN 16258 as well as the guidelines of the Global Logistics Emissions Council. Katharina Tomoff, Vice President, Shared Value, Deutsche Post DHL Group, underscored the benefits for customers: "With the intuitively operated Carbon Calculator, our customers can determine in advance the exact environmental impact of their shipment - at any time, from any place and free of charge."

To calculate the emissions, you simply enter the sender's and receiver's locations, as well as the weight and volume of a shipment. Then you select the preferred mode of transport. Based on your entries, the Carbon Calculator recommends a shipping route, which you can modify further. Using this, the tool calculates the amount of CO2 equivalent emissions that the transport will generate. Enquiries are free of charge on the system and can be entered without registration; registered users also have access to an expanded range of analytical functions.

The new Carbon Calculator complements a number of DHL tools that help customers understand and reduce the environmental impact of their supply chains: Track & Trace: This tool has been expanded to also show transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data for individual shipments; Carbon Report: An individualized report on the amount of GHG emissions generated by the transport of DHL shipments; Carbon Dashboard: An interactive Carbon Report that allows users to run simulations using different transport modes, product types and shipment sizes and to calculate the GHG emissions generated by each scenario.

With its Green Optimization service, DHL also offers customized logistics solutions to help customers reduce GHG emissions and minimize the environmental impact of their logistics processes.

Source: Deutsche Post DHL