The United Nations High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport has published of the first- ever Global Sustainable Transport Outlook Report.

The report provides a focused set of recommendations on how the transportation sector can advance sustainable development, promote economic growth, and bolster the fight against climate change. It provides an analytical overview of global trends, including urbanization, demographic shifts, globalization, and technological progress in digital connectivity and sustainable transport systems.

Frank Appel, CEO, Deutsche Post DHL Group, was a member of the advisory group. “There is an urgent need for collective action to face the challenges of climate change,” he said. “I very much welcome the opportunity to bring our many years of experience in pioneering sustainable transportation solutions and logistics expertise to the table. Our advisory group agrees that there is a strong economic case for sustainable transport that includes many clear social benefits. We have worked together over the past two years to explore how to effectively transform the transportation system and I am convinced that the logistics sector can play a leading role in bringing the report’s recommendations to life.”

The report includes ten specific recommendations, a number of which have clear implications for the logistics sector. For example, the recommendation to make transport planning, policy and investment decisions based on social, environmental, and economic development dimensions challenges logistics operators to seek out new ways to balance short-term financial considerations against broader benefits for society which can deliver long-term economic gains. The recommendation to integrate sustainable transport planning efforts with an appropriately balanced development of transport modes can be supported both by the development of multimodal transport solutions that address customer needs while reducing emissions and by closer collaboration and capacity sharing initiatives between transport companies across their respective networks.

At Deutsche Post DHL Group, sustainability has been an integral part of the corporate strategy for years. By means of its GoGreen program the group has already made great strides in reducing its own carbon footprint, developing sustainable transport technology, and making its customers’ supply chains greener. In 2008, the group set itself the ambitious climate protection target to improve its carbon efficiency by 30 percent over a 2007 baseline by the year 2020. The Group has already achieved a 25-percent increase by 2015.

Using the experience gained from its GoGreen program, the group developed DHL GoGreen Solutions to help its customers achieve their own sustainability targets. This modular system of optimized logistics solutions is designed to identify potential savings and make supply chains more efficient by quantifying and optimizing their carbon footprint, reducing waste and increasing sustainability, moving toward a more circular economy, and offsetting unavoidable emissions.