LONDON – One of the world’s leading logistics providers, DB Schenker is further boosting its green credentials by beginning to offer its customers Sustainable Aviation Fuel as an option on its routes into thousands of airports around the globe.

By offering this, and via virtual allocation of the biofuel, DB Schenker believe they can avoid up to 100 percent of CO2 emissions.

CO2 neutral flights

Lufthansa Cargo has been working in partnership with Schenker on the project that works toward increasing their fossil-free freighter flights. Since November 2020 the two have rotated fully SAF flights between Frankfurt and Shanghai.

In March of this year the 100th fossil fuel-free flight took to the air from Shanghai to Frankfurt and was operated by a Boeing 777F.

Chief Commercial Officer of Lufthansa Cargo said at the time: “We are very pleased on extending our cooperation with our global partner, DB Schenker. Together we operate completely CO2-neutral flight rotations between Asia and Europe as part of our summer flight schedule.”

“DB Schenker has already committed to using about 7,500 tons of Sustainable Aviation Fuel in 2022, which is a remarkable contribution to decarbonizing air freight.” 

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is an alternative fuel produced from renewable waste. The CO2 released during the combustion in the engine, is only the CO2 removed from the atmosphere during the photosynthesis phase of the plant that are used to produce to produce the oils SAF is refined from.

Therefore, it is made CO2 neutral. The logistics heavyweight is only using biofuel that is palm oil free, although at present, SAF is between 3 and 5 times more expensive than traditional aviation fuel that includes fossil fuels.

“Reducing the carbon footprint in supply chains is possible not only in a far-distanced future but already today. Yes, sustainability comes with a price.”

“But now the choice is available: No DB Schenker customer needs to use traditional kerosene for their air freight anymore.”

Virtual allocation of SAF

“We hope that this message will give further momentum towards sustainability in aviation. Customers who have tested or are already regularly using our SAF offer are very satisfied,” said Thortsten Meincke, a Global Board Member for Air & Ocean Freight at DB Schenker.

This new offer of sustainable freighter travel will be virtually allocated. This means that if customers choose to pay the premium for a SAF shipment, then it will not guarantee that ‘their flight’ will be run on SAF specifically.

However, with the inclusion of sustainable fuels on many more flights, it will protect the climate from a specific amount of CO2 emissions, as a conventional aviation fuel flight will have been avoided.

Customers will receive certification of exactly how much greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided when they opt to utilise a SAF flight.

Chief Executive Officer of DB Schenker Jochen Thewes said: “We are very proud of the game-changing pioneer project we started with our trusted partner Lufthansa Cargo. Today, we take the next step by starting a global green air cargo network.”

“We have purchased massive volumes of biofuel to push the decarbonization of our industry. Customers of DB Schenker can now virtually book SAF on all trade lanes to thousands of airports. This new flexibility is a success factor and good for the climate. Every ton of biofuel counts.” 

The purchase of over 11,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel will remove 33,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2022 alone, and partnership flights with Lufthansa Cargo have already avoided 40,000 tonnes.