As the availability of climate protection projects meeting high quality standards is limited, Deutsche Post DHL decided to initiate its first own project in Lesotho. For the conventional cooking process people living in rural areas traditionally use open fireplaces. But this process requires a large amount of firewood, a scarce resource in Lesotho and, in addition to emitting CO2, the open fireplaces produce huge quantities of smoke which adversely affects people’s health.
In our Lesotho project, Deutsche Post DHL invests in efficient wood-burning stoves called “Save80”, which use up to 80 % less wood. In financing the project in Lesotho, our Group allows the local people to buy the new stoves at reduced prices. DHL transported the first 1,300 Save80 stoves to Lesotho by the end of 2010. They are assembled on site and also maintained there, which also creates additional employment for local people. In investing in the Save80 stoves, the people of Lesotho benefit from a more comfortable and healthy cooking process, and also save time and money thanks to the reduced amount of wood they need for cooking. Deforestation and soil erosion are subsequently minimized. At the same time, the people in Lesotho reduce carbon emissions by replacing open fireplaces with the more efficient stoves. The Lesotho project is expected to generate 20,000 tonnes of reduced CO2 annually, resulting in carbon credits. Those will be used by Deutsche Post DHL from 2012 onwards to offset a major part of the transport-related carbon emissions for the GOGREEN shipments.
