Energy consumption plays a crucial role in controlling flows of goods and information, transport and storage of products, not only as far as costs are concerned but also in terms of the climate: studies by the WEF (World Economic Forum) show that logistics and transport currently cause more than 5.5% of all CO2 emissions worldwide – and that is an upward trend. According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI , logistics accounts for 5 to 15% of the emissions in the life cycle of products. However, the think tank sees large potential for improvement in this area in particular.

With more than three million employees, logistics is the third largest area of the economy in Germany, behind the automobile industry and retail. According to the Bundesvereinigung Logistik (Federal Logistics Association) (BVL), the turnover of the 60,000 logistics service providers amounted to around EUR 263 billion in 2017 alone. A working group of the dialog forum “Wirtschaft macht Klimaschutz” (“Business and Climate Protection”) has been focusing actively on more climate-friendly logistics since March 2018. The initiative was launched in 2017 by the Federal Ministry of the Environment .