• Trilateral agreement once again helps promote decarbonisation in the industry.
• Over 30,000 liters of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) were purchased to reduce the emissions produced by the transportation of flowers for Mother’s Day peak season on the Bogota-Miami route.
  

Kuehne+Nagel, LATAM Cargo Chile and Elite Group reached a new milestone to reduce carbon emissions produced by the transportation of flowers for Mother’s Day. There sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) purchased together totalled 34,615 liters, which is equivalent to the CO2 reduction of 70 tons of flowers during the peak season from Bogota, Colombia to Miami, United States. This volume reflects the transportation of more than 1.6 million flower stems.

Kuehne+Nagel has made reducing emissions in the logistics industry a central element of its strategic Roadmap 2026 and Vision 2030. Yngve Ruud, Executive Vice President Air Logistics at Kuehne+Nagel, comments: “It is crucial to drive actions in the industry that emphasize the importance of establishing a sustainability strategy. Based on long-term collaboration, the impacts of the initiatives developed increase over time. The decarbonisation challenges faced by logistics companies are ambitious, and the only way to achieve them is by leading the conversation and actions around the ESG agenda at a global level”.

Andrés Bianchi, CEO of LATAM Cargo Chile, comments “With this endeavor, we are making progress in the LATAM group’s commitment to mitigate climate change, with which we challenge ourselves to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Collaboration between the different actors in this industry is fundamental to advance at the pace necessary to achieve our goals. We hope that examples like this will help to generate more solutions that contribute to decarbonization and encourage the development and use of this type of fuel in South America, where there is great potential”.

For Elite Group, a well-known company in the floral world, “this initiative aligns perfectly with our broader environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives, underscoring our goal of net zero emissions while maintaining a positive impact on the environment and the communities in which we operate. Adopting SAF protects our environment and enhances the reputation of air transport, ensuring the longevity of numerous jobs throughout our supply chain. As a leader in our field, we remain steadfast in our mission to unite innovation with responsibility, driving progress while upholding our commitment to the planet and our global community”, adds Galo Sánchez, Executive Vice President Elite Group.

One of the particularities of SAF, is that it helps to reduce up to 80% of the carbon footprint when compared to conventional fuel. The SAF was produced from used cooking oil, which, after being treated, is mixed with traditional jet fuel.

In the current context of limited SAF production worldwide, these collaborative agreements are of the most significant relevance. This is the second collaboration between the cargo subsidiary of LATAM group, Elite Group, and Kuehne+Nagel in less than 12 months in reducing the carbon footprint of their joint operations as part of a long-term sustainability agenda. It is expected that over time the parties will continue to strengthen agreements of this type.