Logistics giant DHL Express announced today a new long-term agreement with clean energy and renewable fuels provider World Energy for the purchase of roughly 668 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) via sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc).

The seven-year deal, running through 2030, marks one of the largest-ever SAFc agreements in the aviation industry to date.

​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.

DHL Express announced last year that it had entered two of the largest-ever sustainable aviation fuel deals, sourcing more than 800 million liters of SAF from suppliers bp and Neste over the next five years. DHL also recently announced it had entered into a collaboration to pioneer and test a new system for the tracking and reporting of emissions reduction in air travel through the use of SAF.

John Pearson, CEO DHL Express said:

“DHL Express is firmly dedicated to pioneering a sustainable future in aviation logistics. By partnering with World Energy and confirming this milestone agreement, we are taking another concrete leap towards minimizing our carbon footprint and contributing to a more sustainable future. We want to inspire more suppliers to accelerate industry-wide production and adoption of SAF.”

According to the companies, the SAFc agreement enables the separation of the fuel’s environmental attributes from the fuel itself, through the use of a “Book & Claim” approach, which ensures that emissions reductions associated with each credit are accurately transferred, and verified by a third party. The Book & Claim approach also circumvents the logistical issues and emissions of actually shipping the fuel to DHL. Instead, the fuel will be supplied to Los Angeles area airports, close to World Energy’s production facility in Paramount, CA., which will receive credit for reduction on its Scope 1 emissions, and DHL will receive a certificate for reduction of its Scope 3 emissions.

The agreement is expected to reduce approximately 1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the aviation fuel lifecycle. This is equivalent to approximately 77,000 annual carbon neutral DHL flights in the Americas for one year. ​

Gene Gebolys, World Energy CEO said:

Decarbonizing the hard-to-abate sectors requires commitment across the value chain, and partnerships like the one we are launching today are key to enabling companies like DHL to meet their ambitions climate goals.”