uShip Now Offering 100% Climate-Neutral Transport Across Germany, Mainland Europe

Global transport exchange joins with MyClimate to offset all greenhouse emissions from their delivery jobs.

Transport is a dirty business. In Germany, delivery vans and trucks are responsible for 45.5 tonnes for Carbon and other Green House gas emissions, estimated to soon make up 43% of Germany's total GHG output.

To address this issue directly, transport exchange uShip has now turned delivery jobs on its site 100% climate-neutral. This means for every tonne of CO2 produced from car, furniture, motorcycle, boat and freight deliveries across mainland Europe, including Germany, France and The Netherlands, uShip will donate 20 euros to MyClimate, the Swiss Climate Foundation that funds climate-neutral projects like wind farms and solar collectors around the world.

Example MyClimate projects include the installation of wind turbines in India and the installation of solar collectors in Eritrea. "The donations made by uShip flow directly into the financing of climate protection projects that demonstrably and measurably relieve the climate. The highest quality is guaranteed, since we only support projects which have been certified by UN-accredited testing institutions that burden on the climate," says MyClimate. "Another advantage of the payments from uShip to MyClimate is that all greenhouse emissions from uShip transports are offset, not just the CO2 emissions."

uShip's climate-neutral initiative builds on its inherently green transport business; where customers needing to move large items are connected with extra space in delivery vehicles that are already making the journey. This results in fewer unnecessary vans and trucks on the road and reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the environment.

Further, uShip offsets 100% of its internal operations, including business travel, data centres, and utilities, verified through uShip's existing U.S. partnership with TerraPass, a carbon offset retailer that also enables transporter and transport customer contributions. In the UK, uShip additionally operates a Green Transport Network to facilitate small and micro transport businesses connect with projects and advice to help them permanently reduce their CO2 emissions.

Climate-Neutral Deliveries

Since 2006, 25,000 shipping customers have offset the CO2 impact of their deliveries on the uShip marketplace, representing 26 million offset miles by transporters. The most significant growth in demand for this service was in 2010, when 10,000 shipping customers offset 673 tonnes of carbon from their uShip deliveries, representing 10 million offset miles by drivers. Today, uShip has 5,000 carbon-balanced transporters signed up through TerraPass.

At www.uShip.de users can list free of charge and without obligation transport requests especially for bulky items such as cars, motorcycles, furniture and heavy machinery. After entering the postal code and a few clicks the listing available online for thousands of Couriers and Transport companies to quote on. Customers can review quotes from multiple transport companies, and select the best deal for them. The format reduces the transport costs by up to 50%, as carriers often quote on the delivery listings that are along their routes, taking the opportunity to fill empty space, and thus reducing empty trips.

"Our goal is to provide an environmentally friendly transportation service in Germany," comments Adrian Pieron, Country Manager Germany of uShip, on the compensation of greenhouse gases to uShip. "Our uShip concept to fill up empty loading capacity on regular truck loads with additional uShip transport deliveries, already has a strong green component. The higher utilisation enhances transport efficiency and reduces the transport cost. This helps the environment and the pockets of consumers. However, the any transport journey, no matter how efficient, will still produce harmful greenhouse gases. We want to take the steps to neutralise these emissions by supporting MyClimate's valuable projects."