DHL Neutral Services cuts carbon and costs at O2 warehouse .

DHL announced the completion of its first carbon neutral warehouse globally, and the first of its kind in the UK; the 604 m2 site near Wakefield West Yorkshire is the location for the main distribution centre of UK communication company O2.

The project was implemented by DHL through its in-house carbon consultancy, DHL Neutral Services, as part of the Company's industry leading GoGreen Program, which includes a commitment to reduce its carbon by 30.0% by 2020, and improve the cost efficiency of its supply chains.

The transformation of this warehouse to carbon neutral status was achieved by installing a ground source heat pump for heating and cooling which transfers the heat from the ground into the building.

In addition, changes were made to energy consumption by installing motion sensors to electric lighting systems, and the warehouse switched to a green energy tariff which provides energy from carbon-reduced sources.

The implementation followed DHL Neutral Services' four-stage carbon reduction model of assessment, reduction, replacement and neutralisation, which resulted in 98.0% of the site's carbon emissions being eliminated completely and only the remaining 2.0% requiring offsetting via Gold Standard Certified Emission Reductions (CERs).

In total an annual 760 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions were reduced and neutralised, which equals the carbon footprint of over 150 return flights from London to Sydney.

DHL will conduct regular assessment of the site to evaluate emissions from its operations toward continual improvement.