Kuehne and Nagel and Roche develop environment-friendly transport solution

The global pharmaceutical Group Roche has awarded logistics contracts for

Greece to Kuehne + Nagel. The two companies have jointly developed an environment-friendly logistics solution which can substantially reduce CO2 emissions.


Kuehne + Nagel transports temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical

products for Roche which have to be kept within clearly defined

temperature ranges throughout the entire transport from pick-up to the

customer (between +2°C and +8°C and between +15°C and +25°C).

Usually, such products are transported by airfreight even over relatively

short distances. For its business in Greece, however, the pharma

company sought a more environment-friendly alternative which

maintained the highest quality standards while at the same time

achieving a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions.


Based on the logistics provider's own 'KN PharmaChain' product, the

Kuehne + Nagel specialists collaborated closely with the customer to

develop a solution that ideally fulfills all requirements. 'KN PharmaChain' is

a Europe-wide overland transport service for pharmaceutical products. The

service is constantly further developed and expanded. It uses state-of-theart

refrigerated trailers which permit exact temperature control and efficient

double-stack loading. The majority of the tractor units conform to the Euro-

5 standard. The network, which is certified in accordance with Good

Distribution Practice-Standards (GDP), guarantees an unbroken

refrigeration chain in road transport.


In the solution that has been developed, the shipments originating from

various Roche production plants are consolidated by Kuehne + Nagel

and transported to Greece under temperature controlled conditions.

Compared with air transport, substantially less fuel is consumed for the

same distance. Furthermore, the passive temperature control packing,

which was previously required, is no longer needed, thus reducing the

2 of 2 volume of the shipment as well as saving packing material. As a result of

these measures, the CO2 emissions are reduced by around 85%. The remaining CO2 is offset by a project of the organisation myclimate, which is being financed with a one-time payment by Kuehne + Nagel.


"The implementation of this project is the result of a close partnership in

the fields of sustainability and green logistics," says Dirk Reich,

Executive Vice President and member of the Management Board of

Kuehne + Nagel International AG. "This clearly shows that Roche and

Kuehne + Nagel do more than pay lip service to the protection of the

environment," he adds.