What does green logistics mean?

The term “green logistics” describes all measures in logistics that aim to make transport, storage, and packaging processes sustainable and environmentally friendly. The goal is to minimize the environmental impact of logistics along the entire supply chain, particularly in terms of CO₂ emissions, energy consumption, noise pollution, and the use of resources such as packaging materials and fuels.

Green logistics thus finds itself caught between economic efficiency and environmental responsibility, two goals that increasingly need to go hand in hand – not least due to legal requirements, growing customer expectations, and ESG-oriented corporate strategies.

Key Green Logistics Measures

To reduce their environmental footprint, companies are implementing a wide range of green logistics measures, including:

• Use of alternative drive technologies (e.g., electric, hydrogen, or LNG vehicles)
• Optimization of routes and transport capacities to avoid empty runs
• Shifting transport to more environmentally friendly modes of transport such as rail or inland waterways
• Sustainable packaging solutions, such as reusable packaging or recyclable materials
• Energy-efficient warehousing and conveyor technology
• CO₂ compensation through certified environmental projects
• Digitalization for better resource utilization and process control

Challenges and opportunities

The transition to green logistics involves investment, restructuring, and, in some cases, regulatory requirements. The challenges include, for example:

• High initial costs for new technologies and infrastructure
• Complexity of implementation across different countries and stakeholders
• Lack of standardized sustainability metrics in logistics

At the same time, green logistics offers companies considerable opportunities: from building a positive brand image and tapping into new customer groups to long-term cost reductions through more efficient processes.