Carbon Neutral DPD

We deliver our products through DPD, who provide a reliable and long-established delivery service. One of the main benefits of using DPD for all our deliveries is that they provide a carbon neutral delivery service, which helps us do more to protect the environment.

Why is carbon neutrality important?

Carbon neutrality is where you remove as much CO2 from the environment as you put into it; meaning you are not contributing to adding extra carbon dioxide into the environment.

This is important because CO2 is a greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are gases like water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs (which is an organic compound containing carbon, chlorine and fluorine); when these gases are released into the atmosphere, they absorb some of the sun’s energy which is usually reflected off the atmosphere, which in turn warms the earth’s atmosphere and surface, the root cause of global warming.

What are the effects of global warming?

As we all know global warming is bad, but how does it affect our planet? Well, the increase in temperature causes snow and icebergs to melt, which is the causal effect of the rise in our sea levels. The melting of icebergs also means that wildlife based in the Antarctic will lose their natural habitat, which could end in the extinction of certain species. The rise in temperature also means that natural disasters will be more common and more extreme.

A big effect greenhouse gases have, is the depletion of the ozone layer; ozone is a gas, and in our atmosphere, there is a layer of ozone. Ozone’s purpose is that it absorbs ultraviolet rays that are emitted from the sun; if UV ray levels were to rise to dangerous levels, it would be very harmful to everything on this planet (UV rays are what cause sunburn, so high exposure to UV rays could be fatal). The depletion of the ozone layer is caused by the release of greenhouse gases that also cause global warming.

What is DPD doing to reduce their CO2 emissions?

DPD guarantee that every parcel that they deliver is carbon neutral. DPD measures the levels of greenhouse gases that they put out into the environment, and measure key performance indicators on how that is affecting the environment.

They then reduce the CO2 that they emit through many different methods:

-They use tour optimisation when delivering parcels which also makes their transport network more efficient; this is where the shortest possible route is found when delivering a parcel to save fuel.

-They have a feature called predict, which is where they send out an email or a text with a time slot of one hour for when the parcel is to be delivered, which reduces the risk of parcels being missed, and more CO2 being released through more travelling.

-They also have a pickup option, in which customers can pick up the parcel from a checkpoint near them.

-DPD also use alternative fuel vehicles in with their fleet. This includes natural gas vehicles that are powered predominantly by methane, not petrol or diesel, which emits significantly less CO2.

-Double deck trucks are used in deliveries to optimise how much one vehicle can carry, meaningless journeys must be made by separate vehicles.

DPD and renewable energy

DPD finance renewable energy by purchasing carbon credits. A carbon credit is a permit that allows a country or organisation to produce a certain amount of carbon emissions; one carbon credit allows a company to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or any other greenhouse gas. If the company needs to emit more C02 they must buy additional carbon credits.

The rules surrounding carbon credits is that projects can only sell carbon credits if the money spent on the credit, goes to reducing emissions by the same amount that they have sold to the customer (carbon offsetting). DPD purchase carbon credits so that money will go towards reducing emissions through renewable energy sources.

Here at groupgear, we try to do everything we can to protect our environment whilst still providing quality products and excellent customer service. You can read more about our environmental policy here. DPD provides efficient delivery services for our customers, whilst making sure that as well as looking after our customers, they are also looking after the planet.