Lauterach, Austria-based transportation and logistics company Gebrüder Weiss on Thursday announced a carbon-neutral service for North American customers transporting goods via ocean or air.
Gebrüder Weiss called it a zero-emissions service because “customers have the opportunity to fully compensate the CO2 emissions generated during the transport of their cargo,” Mark McCullough, CEO at Gebrüder Weiss USA, told FreightWaves.
Customers’ emissions are calculated using the EcoTransIT database and are itemized on the freight invoice, with the costs to offset emissions listed.
“It’s exciting to bring the new zero-emissions service that was rolled out late last year in Europe to our air and sea transport customers in North America. It not only gives them full, detailed transparency on their shipments’ carbon footprint, it also provides a path to move towards climate neutrality,” McCullough said.
Carbon offsetting details
The carbon offsets are purchased through one of many “certified climate protection projects,” including:
- Providing clean cookstoves in Nigeria, reducing deforestation due to wood burning.
- Managing forests sustainably in Brazil, safeguarding valuable ecosystems.
- Installing solar panels in India, reducing greenhouse emissions.
Gebrüder Weiss is working with NatureOffice because of the organization’s focus on carbon offsets and “investing in guiding businesses toward avoiding and reducing GHG emissions,” McCullough said.
Each carbon-offsetting project meets the Gold Standard for Global Goals, the “strictest and most respected standard worldwide for climate protection projects in voluntary emissions trading,” he said.
Read: Navigating voluntary carbon offset markets — Net-Zero Carbon
Customers that purchase carbon offsets can find information about their climate projects online. They will also receive a certificate with their company’s name and the project number.
“Climate protection is an issue that impacts everyone. While we can work towards this goal internally, we also wanted to provide an opportunity to enroll our customers in our mission toward carbon neutrality,” McCullough said.
He said voluntary offsets often come before companies take more concrete actions to reduce GHGs and are a good starting place for customers that don’t have emissions-reduction strategies in place yet.
Gebrüder Weiss sustainability efforts, goals
Gebrüder Weiss has a target to be climate neutral by 2030, meaning it will aim to offset all of its emissions using carbon credits.
The company is testing and using hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, compressed natural gas and electricity to power vehicles, McCullough said. It also plans to expand solar energy use at logistics facilities so that 100% of logistics buildings run on renewable energy by 2030.
Read: Alternative low-carbon fuels predicted to ‘steal headlines’
“This decade Gebrüder Weiss is devoted to a clearly defined mission: making the organization climate-neutral by 2030. We are working hard towards this goal at all our locations around the globe and, thanks to significant investments, we will continue to lower our annual CO2 output,” McCullough said.
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