Logistics giant Deutsche Post DHL Group announced today that its mail and parcel delivery business Deutsche Post will offset all carbon emissions generated by its letter mail operations at no extra charge to customers, effective immediately.

The new initiative builds on the “GoGreen” service offered to Deutsche Post and DHL customers, which has provided the option of climate-neutral shipping through investments in internationally recognized climate protection projects to offset emissions generated during transport. The company has said that it aims to introduce further options and emissions-reduced products to enable customers to contribute to sustainability and reduce absolute CO2 emissions.

Prior to today’s announcement, GoGreen was offered at a charge to customers and available only to business customers with a shipping volume of at least 50,000 items per year. According to Deutsche Post, based on 2020 volumes of approximately 6.5 billion letters handled, the expanded program would translate into an offset of more than 300,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The new initiative follows the launch last year of DHL’s Sustainability Roadmap, which include a series of decarbonization and environmental sustainability commitments encompassing the introduction of more ambitious climate targets, and planned investments of €7 billion over the next ten years in measures to reduce CO2 emissions.

Ole Nordhoff, Chief Marketing Officer at Deutsche Post, said:

“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.”