The German logistics, building and construction company Gerdes + Landwehr has committed to a long-term partnership with global climate NGO Justdiggit to help offset its fleet’s CO2 emissions. In total, Gerdes + Landwehr will re-green an area of 100,000,000 m2 of dry land in Tanzania by bringing back more than 400,000 trees, an area over 2,5x the size of Berlin Centre.
The partnership was made possible through the ‘Green Your Fleet’ programme of Webfleet Solutions. Created with sustainability partner Justdiggit, the Green Your Fleet programme gives customers an estimate of their fleet’s annual CO2 emissions, allowing them to offset their emissions by helping to re-green drylands in Africa. Justdiggit is global partner of the UN environment programme focusing on landscape restoration projects in Africa empowering millions of farmers to regreen their lands.
The family owned Gerdes + Landwehr with around 400 employees is operating 230 large trucks supplying customers with logistics solutions in Germany. The company already has a keen focus on environmental responsibility and are on a journey to become a carbon neutral company.
This was also a reason why Gerdes + Landwehr originally invested in WEBFLEET: “We are a WEBFLEET customer for over 15 years now. Next to improving our dispatching and overall fleet efficiency, we are using the OptiDrive solution to save fuel and coach on greener driving styles. This goes hand in hand with cost reductions for our customers. By avoiding empty kilometers through continually reducing tare weight to increase payload, we’re able to cut the number of vehicles needed to complete a job”, explains John Henrik Landwehr, CEO of Gerdes + Landwehr.
For John Henrik Landwehr, it’s important that his business can be as sustainable as possible. However, in recent years the company has hit some barriers in their sustainability mission. Due to limited new resources and technologies, such as hydrogen trucks, the company has had to rely on fossil fuels to offer their customers reliable transport and logistic solutions. This has restricted the green mission of the business.
“We would like to switch our fleet to renewable energies as soon as possible but options for heavy trucks are still limited. When I heard about Green Your Fleet and Justdiggit my interest was immediately sparked. Finally, here is a solution that can help offset the emissions from our vehicles in the meantime and help us make a direct positive climate impact by restoring nature while also empowering local communities,” John Henrik Landwehr added.
By committing to a five-year partnership with the Dutch NGO, the company goes a step further. The investment will result in re-greening an area of 10,000 hectares, restoring 405,000 trees, sequestrating 153,000 tonnes of CO2 and positively impacting 54,000 people.
