Logistics giant DHL and Google announced today the launch of a new partnership, with Google utilizing the DHL GoGreen Plus service and investing in sustainable aviation fuel to help reduce its emissions from air logistic transportation across the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

DHL’s GoGreen service provides shippers with the option of climate-neutral shipping through investments in internationally recognized climate protection projects to offset emissions generated during transport. GoGreen Plus aims to offer real emissions reductions through carbon “insetting,” enabling shippers to replace conventional fossil fuels with sustainable fuels or clean technologies, such as SAF.

According to Google and DHL, the new agreement follows a successful pilot project by the companies around SAF from June to September 2023. Under the new partnership, Google will use the GoGreen Plus service with SAF for shipping of Google devices in the Devices & Services business unit across the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

The announcement forms part of Google’s efforts to help support existing decarbonization technologies in air cargo transportation, according to the company. In 2023, Google joined the Avelia Sustainable Aviation Fuel program, which offers SAF credits to corporate customers, and earlier this year, Google joined the United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, to provide catalytic investment to drive SAF production.

Omar Molina, Director of Global Transportation at Google said:

“Google has a goal to achieve net-zero emissions across our operations and value chain by 2030. Optimizing how we transport Google devices around the world is a key part of this journey. That’s why we’re thrilled to collaborate with partners like DHL, who share our passion for Net-Zero. The SAF program is a big step forward in that direction”.

Scaling the use of sustainable aviation fuels forms a significant part of DHL’s Sustainability Roadmap. Launched in 2021, the roadmap includes a series of decarbonization and environmental sustainability commitments encompassing the introduction of more ambitious climate targets and linking executive compensation to ESG goals. DHL’s targets include using at least 30% of SAF blending for all air transport by 2030.

John Pearson, CEO of DHL Express said:

“By deploying SAF across our international network, we are pleased to offer the GoGreen Plus service to our long-standing partner Google. We are confident that this agreement and Google’s meaningful investment will encourage others to take the same initiative and drive the transition to low-emission transportation services using sustainable aviation fuel.”