05/06/2010 11:00 am

Sustainable logistics on show: DHL at the World Expo Shanghai 2010

DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, will present innovations in the areas of sustainability and green solutions at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai. DHL has partnered with the Urban Planet pavilion, the central Chinese theme pavilion presenting the Expo’s overall theme “Better City, Better Life”.

It is expected that more than 70 million visitors between May 1 to October 31 will make the Expo 2010 Shanghai the biggest world exhibition of all times. Deutsche Post DHL, the parent company of DHL, is the first company in the industry who has committed itself to a quantified climate protection target - the Group will improve its CO2 efficiency by 30 percent by 2020 compared with 2007.

„As the world´s biggest logistics provider, we recognize a special responsibility to use our core competencies to minimize the impact on the environment and give back to the larger society,” said Frank Appel, Chief Executive Offer of Deutsche Post DHL. “We are committed to continuing to invest in green technologies and want to demonstrate at the Expo what we consider innovative, sustainable logistics.”

The exhibition shows examples from the Group’s climate protection program and DHL’s GOGREEN products, environmentally friendly transport technologies and new concepts for effective City Logistics. At Deutsche Post DHL, the DHL Solutions & Innovations unit and the Corporate GoGreen program are dedicated to developing solutions for the logistics of the future and for keeping environmental aspects at the centerpiece of business.

At the 2010 Expo in Shanghai, 240 countries and organizations are exhibiting in an area covering altogether 5.4 km², with the Chinese Urban Planet pavilion representing the centerpiece of the exhibition. In the first part of the pavilion, the ascending “Road of Crisis” visualizes the destruction of the planet. In the second, the descending “Road of Solutions” presents concepts for a better, greener future. This is the section where DHL presents its ten examples for implementation of carbon-neutral and carbon-efficient concepts, products and services.

On the “Road of solutions” the DHL Smart Truck calculates the most efficient delivery route. Traffic jams, detours and instant orders are managed cleverly, reducing city traffic and saving emissions. Another example for “cleaner” City Logistics is the project “Bring Buddy”. In collaboration with universities and inspired by the idea to transport parcels in cities without the use of cars, DHL reviews alternative concepts for avoiding inner city traffic. For instance, people that already move across the city could carry parcels. Mobile phones work as information and documentation tools. Social networks become genuine networks. A third example is eco-friendly buildings which are an important step to saving resources and emissions. DHL complies with the latest standards when building new facilities, solar panels are used or rainwater gets collected. All these measures help to protect the climate – and minimize operation costs.

As the “Road of Solutions” picks up on discussions on renewable energies and measures lowering emissions, on the intelligent recycling of raw materials, and on the integration of nature in cities, DHL will use the opportunity to invite customers to the Expo to get a lively impression of the Group´s “green” activities and to organize symposia and discussion panels.

From day one, the pavilion proved popular with the crowds. On the opening day alone, more than 22,000 visitors stopped over at the theme pavilion, followed by a further 21,600 on the subsequent day. These numbers amount to approx. 10 % of the event’s overall visitors on the two above-mentioned days: this year’s Expo kicked off with 205,700 attendees on the first day and continued its successful run with more than 215,000 Expo visitors on May 2nd.