Kuehne+Nagel will use Hapag-Lloyd’s Ship Green product to cover around 3,300 TEU of ocean freight on the East Asia–North Europe lane between April and December 2026. The agreement involves around 1,000 tonnes of waste-based marine biofuel and is the first joint sustainable fuel deal between the two companies.
Hapag-Lloyd says the volume should deliver verified savings of 2,979 tonnes of CO₂e on a well-to-wake basis. The fuel is sourced from waste feedstocks and meets the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive III (RED III) sustainability criteria.
Bought here, burned elsewhere
The biofuel will not necessarily go into the tanks of the ships carrying Kuehne+Nagel’s containers. The deal works on a book-and-claim basis: Hapag-Lloyd burns the alternative fuel somewhere in its operated fleet, the resulting emission reductions are independently verified, and the savings are then allocated to Kuehne+Nagel for use in its customers’ Scope 3 reporting.
That model has become standard in shipping decarbonisation deals because alternative fuels are not yet available at scale at every port. It lets carriers concentrate biofuel use where bunkering is practical, while financially tying the demand to verified physical consumption.
The credibility of the model depends on whether the fuel use, emission factors and allocation of savings are properly verified and not double-counted.
Small volume, familiar pattern
The 3,300 TEU covered is a small share of either company’s overall ocean activity. The wider relevance is the pattern: large forwarders and carriers are pre-purchasing lower-emission fuel volumes to build market demand ahead of tightening regulation and rising customer reporting requirements.
Hapag-Lloyd has set a target of net-zero fleet operations by 2045. Kuehne+Nagel is aiming for net zero across its value chain by 2050.
