Sustainability is on every shipper’s mind, and meeting your climate targets shouldn’t mean disrupting your logistics. With the new SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard 2.0, the focus on transport data and transition plans is only getting stronger.

To mark World Sustainability Day, we spoke with Christian Volp and Carmela Filippello, from our Sustainability team. They explain how we help you measure and reduce your transport emissions, what the new standard could mean for your cargo, and how we hold ourselves to our own targets.

Let’s dive in.

Sustainable solutions for shippers 

  1. How would you summarize Forto’s approach to sustainability, and how does it fit into our mission as a digital freight forwarder?

Our ambition is to make shipping sustainably as easy as sending an email. We want sustainable shipping options to be scalable and accessible to all clients, not just a select few. Beyond our own operations, we want to help drive the sustainable transformation of the shipping sector and play at the forefront of sustainable shipping.

2. What concrete solutions do we offer shippers to help them measure and cut their transport emissions?

  • Climate visibility: Get your emissions calculated and understand your footprint at shipment level for pre-, main and on-carriage. For Sea Freight, this uses highly granular data inputs such as AIS vessel tracking, vessel-specific emission factors and fuel models.
  • Biofuel Light: Comes with a 5% emission reduction across pre-, main and on-carriage, plus one kg of recovered ocean-bound plastic.
  • Biofuel Max & Blends: Offer emission reductions of 25-80% for the main carriage, with pre- and on-carriage as optional.
  • Ocean plastic prevention: Gives our customers the option to recover 10 kg of ocean-bound plastic in their name and take part in protecting our oceans. In 2025, our partner Plastic Fischer recovered and processed 18,981 kilograms of waste for Forto and our customers.
  • All biofuels are second generation, compliant with the EU Renewable Energy Directive and ISCC certified.
  • All emission reductions are generated from the application of biofuel under the Book & Claim approach. This means the fuel switch is done on a different vessel than the one transporting the client’s cargo.

Internal sustainability and culture

How do we practice sustainability internally, in our day-to-day office operations and across our culture?

It starts with how we get to work and how we travel. We subsidize public transport tickets, including the Deutschland Ticket, and offer bike leasing through JobRad, which removes cost barriers for low-carbon commuting. Our travel policy requires that distances under three hours be covered by train or company car rather than by plane.

We also get involved beyond the office:

  • World Clean-up Day: Our global teams took part around the world to clean up the cities they call home.
  • Book Club: Every three months, colleagues read a title together, often on a sustainability theme, buy their copies from independent local bookstores and meet to discuss it.
  • Employee communities: Women at Forto and Queerties give our team a space to connect, share experiences and learn together.

Accountability and climate targets

How are we holding ourselves accountable to our net-zero commitments and long-term reduction targets?

For our Scope 1 & 2 targets, the key levers are our electric fleet strategy and increasingly procuring renewable electricity in all locations.

For Scope 3, we are deploying second-generation biofuels across ocean, aviation (SAF) and road freight, and using renewable electricity for rail. We are also preparing our network for affordable future renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) and zero-emission trucks.

As Forto is an asset-free freight forwarder, we use certified book & claim chains of custody that follow the one-atmosphere principle. This lets us cut emissions at the source without being limited by asset ownership.

While book & claim recognition was pending at SBTi, we reported gross emissions toward our targets, excluding biofuel reductions. Under the SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard 2.0, book & claim and mass-balance mechanisms are formally recognized as admissible chains of custody for Scope 3 transport. That allows these verified reductions to count toward validated net-zero targets.

We monitor our emissions performance and target trajectories and hold ourselves accountable by publishing our Sustainability Report every year.

Future outlook for logistics teams  

With the SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard 2.0 putting a stronger focus on Scope 3 transport data and transition plans, what should shippers keep in mind for the near future?

  • Expect data quality to matter more. Consignees are likely to ask their forwarders for more detailed, traceable emissions data.
  • Frontrunners can help develop the market. The standard recognizes market instruments based on different chain-of-custody models, for example mass balance and book & claim. It still expects actions to relate to the same type of activity and to a relevant geographic or system context. In other words, how close an action is to your own operations still matters.
  • Prepare for the transition plan. The plan must describe actions, timelines, assumptions and dependencies, and the board must approve it. Shippers should identify which transport levers they can realistically pull and by when, for example mode shift, carrier selection, routing, consolidation and lower-carbon fuel options. Their forwarder should be able to support and quantify these levers with them.
  • Book & claim is not a shortcut. It is needed to accelerate decarbonization, but SBTi sets a clear hierarchy: activity-level actions first, then activity-pool-level, then sector-level. Book & claim is not a level in itself. It is a market instrument that can support actions at the activity-pool and sector levels, not a replacement for direct reductions at the source.
  • Certificates are reported separately. They sit outside the physical inventory, and claims from them are “system contribution” claims rather than reductions in the company’s own reported emissions.

Driving sustainability together

As global supply chains evolve, transitioning to sustainable logistics is an operational priority. Navigating new standards requires rigorous data, actionable transition plans, and the right strategic partners.
Ready to take the next step in decarbonizing your supply chain? 

Get in touch to discover how Forto can support your climate goals and set your logistics up for the future