Must warehousing really cost the earth?

For example, all new buildings have a carbon neutral design, and the share of green electricity – procured from sustainable sources – will be more than 90% by 2030. By that same year, sustainably-powered sources of heating will have been rolled-out to over half of the Group’s buildings.

Locally produced electricity from renewable sources such as solar will be converted into fuel for electric vehicles, while the use of digital tools and intelligent building management systems will provide further reductions in energy consumption.

Operating a modern, technologically-advanced warehouse requires enormous amounts of energy. To optimize energy consumption in Thailand, DHL Supply Chain has invested more than $1 million in installing solar panels on the rooftops of four warehouses.

Spanning a total area of around 11,000 square meters, the panels cover a surface close to the size three football pitches. They generate enough energy to meet 38 % of the facilities’ demand, while also reducing energy use by 20 percent annually.

The initiative is just the latest in a range of recent measures aimed at increasing the sustainable credentials of the facilities and making a tangible difference in energy requirements. Others include motion sensor LED lights, which are activated only at certain times and in specific operational areas, and solar powered external lighting. 

Meanwhile, a waste management initiative is helping drive customers’ businesses toward zero-waste through the principles of ‘reduction, reuse, and recycling.’    

In Australia, DHL Supply Chain began installing simple solar panel solutions on the roofs of its warehouses as far back as 2017. Since then, the team has taken that up a notch with the Urban Power Station at its HP 8 warehouse in Sydney.

The HP 8 Warehouse is a pharmaceutical-grade cold-chain site, meaning it uses a lot of electricity to keep medical products cool – all day, every day. However, it now boasts its own power plant: a 1.7-megawatt Dynamic Urban Power Station powered by 5,500 solar panels on the warehouse roof, guaranteeing 40 percent of the site’s electricity. The project was developed with partner Epho, a provider of commercial solar energy solutions. Epho’s “Bright Thinkers Power Station” (BTPS) is different from typical solutions because it includes technology that allows leftover electricity to be sold back into the power grid.

The benefits of the Urban Power Plant extend beyond the smaller carbon footprint. The electricity generated is significantly cheaper than the usual coal-fired electricity commonly sold in Australia, which leads to savings of more than €180,000 a year. The excess electricity that is fed back into the grid also provides more clean power for other users in the area – helping the broader population lower its use of coal-fired electricity.