As of this year, GLS Netherlands has introduced climate-neutral delivery - for all parcels sent within the Netherlands and abroad. In addition to measures to reduce and avoid CO2 emissions, the company is also committed to full compensation through VCS and Gold Standard projects.
"Protecting the climate is the number one issue that the economy, logistics and society will not be able to avoid in the coming decades," says Milo Kars, Managing Director GLS Netherlands. "All the more reason for us to continue to speed up the ecological reorganisation of our company. In order to already offer a fully climate neutral service, we are compensating our remaining ecological footprint up to 100 percent."
This is done in cooperation with the
Climate Neutral Group through projects that meet the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) or the Gold Standard, the strictest certification standard in the world. These carefully selected compensation projects ensure ecological and social sustainability. GLS Netherlands invests in the local production of efficient cookstoves in Uganda, the preservation and conservation of the biodiversity of the Jacundá forest in Brazil and a biogas project for the reduction of methane in the Netherlands. GLS also supports sustainable forest projects in the Netherlands through the organisation
Trees for All .
Systematically reducing emissions
As part of the ThinkGreen sustainability initiative, launched in 2008 across the GLS Group, GLS Netherlands is avoiding and reducing its impact on the environment. This year, the main focus is on fully sustainable and emission free parcel delivery in the twenty largest Dutch city centres. The logistics service provider is investing in electric vehicles and a charging infrastructure in the depots. In the meantime, electric vehicles are already driving around in four city centres.
GLS' Last-Mile solutions such as the FlexDeliveryService and the ShopDeliveryService help to ensure that parcels are delivered immediately at the first delivery attempt and do not generate extra kilometres. GLS Netherlands also uses efficient LHVs for long distances and new planning and simulation tools to optimise route schedules. In addition, the depots are becoming more sustainable and efficient with, for example, solar panels and recyclable building materials.
The ISO 14001-certified environmental management system is one of the company's fundamental principles for making systematic and continuous progress. GLS Netherlands also participates in Connekt's
Lean & Green programme to optimise its logistics processes while working in a more sustainable manner. The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 20 percent from 2020 to 2025.
Contribution of customers is essential
"It is because of the increasing demand for parcel services that our sector is playing an increasingly important role in controlling climate change," says Milo Kars. "However, a climate neutral parcel delivery also involves more investments and costs due to new technologies, processes and concepts. This is only possible in close cooperation with our customers; sustainability also requires partnership."
GLS Netherlands is the second country within the international GLS Group, after GLS Germany, to transport all its parcels in a fully climate neutral way in order to protect the climate.
Sustainability at GLS
To the press release
