Kaufland Implements Sustainability Goals with Partner Carriers

The heavy-duty road traffic in Germany currently accounts for about a quarter of traffic-related CO2 emissions. Wherever possible, Kaufland contributes to reducing this figure. The company relies on a comprehensive catalog of measures with all its partner carriers, which has been developed, applied, and evaluated in collaboration with an external expert team from FUMO Solutions GmbH.

(Neckarsulm) The latest audits were recently completed and clearly show that the nearly 60 carriers operating for Kaufland with their truck fleets between logistics locations and stores nationwide have successfully implemented the jointly developed measures.

Training for more efficient driving, optimizations in vehicle technology and inspections, targeted data analyses, and many other efforts have paid off. Thanks to the catalog of measures, significant improvements have been achieved across all carriers.

Making a Big Impact Together

“Especially in the transport sector, we can reduce emissions in many different ways. Our goal is to continuously drive this forward to be among the most sustainable food retailers in the long term. We are very proud to have created a catalog of measures together with our carriers and our partner that is unparalleled in this form. The sum of a variety of measures, such as the use of telematics systems in trucks and working with this data, ultimately makes a big difference,” says Alexander Frohmann, Managing Director of Transport Logistics at Kaufland.

In addition to the fleet and the systems for transport organization, the company’s organization and the local buildings were also put to the test regarding energy efficiency and CO2 emissions at the start of the project. The findings served as the basis for creating the extensive, carrier-specific catalog of measures, which provided the partner carriers with concrete points of reference for CO2 reduction. The implementation was later thoroughly audited again. The majority of the carriers received the Green Carrier Award from FUMO Solutions GmbH.

Shining Example

Using resources efficiently and thus promoting environmental protection: Kaufland has been pursuing these goals for many years – also in logistics. Recently, the company received the environmental award “3rd Star” from the “Lean & Green” initiative for the extensive reduction of its CO2 emissions, being the first in the German food retail sector.

In 2019, Kaufland Logistics was awarded the “Lean and Green 2nd Star” by GS1 Germany, in 2016 it received the “Lean and Green 1st Star,” and in 2014 the first award. As part of the initiative, Kaufland has already saved more than 320,000 tons of climate-damaging greenhouse gases, making it a shining example in food retail.

Ambitious Climate Commitment

More sustainability in logistics is just one of the measures contributing to the jointly developed climate strategy of the companies in the Schwarz Group, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030. As part of this climate strategy, the companies of the Schwarz Group have set ambitious goals based on the methodology of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and have implemented corresponding measures for the reduction, avoidance, or compensation of CO2 emissions in operations and the supply chain concerning Scope 1, 2, and 3.

Photo: © Kaufland