Right on schedule, the first consignment of IT products to travel more than 10 000km by rail from southern China to Germany was delivered to Hamburg today by DB Schenker - with the single journey saving a total of 2 200 tons of greenhouse gases in comparison to air freighting.
Underlining its position as the leading IT vendor in pioneering green IT, thanks to its 20-year heritage and its expertise in implementing innovative green IT initiatives, Fujitsu Siemens Computers has started using the Trans-Eurasian Rail Bridge as an environmentally-friendly alternative to air freighting, in order to fulfil fast-track delivery of urgent orders from Asian production facilities.
For Fujitsu Siemens Computers, transporting barebones IT systems and LCD monitors from production in southern China to European assembly plants and distribution in Germany strikes the perfect balance in the transportation triangle of environmental care, delivery speed and supply chain costs. Prior to train freighting, the alternatives were to use air freight, which is a high-speed, high-cost option, or to wait for cheaper sea freighting, which can take up to 28 days.
Fujitsu Siemens Computers plans to contract with DB Schenker to start regular train supplies, having established the 10 000-plus kilometre rail route as a viable, environmentally-friendly and cost-effective transportation option. Fujitsu Siemens Computers is the world's first Original Equipment Manufacturer to switch to rail for trans-Eurasian deliveries, with the use of the green IT train helping the company achieve its goal of continuously reducing carbon emissions across every stage of the IT lifecycle, including manufacturing and transportation. The saving in CO2 emissions from switching this single consignment from air to rail is equivalent to the tail-pipe output from 10 000 000km of private car journeys.
Says Bernd Bischoff, President and CEO of Fujitsu Siemens Computers: “The arrival today of the trans-Eurasian express train is another major milestone on the path towards green IT for Fujitsu Siemens Computers. For us, green IT is more than just colouring our company logo green or planting a few trees - it is about ensuring that green IT is embedded in our business practices, for a better business, for a better planet. The arrival of this train on its pioneering 10 000-plus kilometre trip is a proud moment in our history, and another step on our continued journey towards sustainability.”
For the maiden rail delivery, Fujitsu Siemens Computers was able to meet an urgent fulfilment date for pre-sold monitors, to a customer for whom environmental care was also an important factor in choosing a technology partner. The train journey produced only a fraction of the CO2 in comparison to air freighting the monitors, but enabled the customer to take delivery of the new monitors around 10 days earlier than sea freighting would have allowed.
Realisation of the green IT train dream was achieved by logistics partner DB Schenker, which liaised with rail operators in Poland, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia and China to coordinate the epic journey. The train started on 19 September from Xiangtang in southern China and, on its way to Hamburg, crossed five country borders. The train's progress throughout the journey was tracked via GPS, with Fujitsu Siemens Computers continually monitoring and recording the temperature and vibration levels within each of the 50 sealed goods containers.
Says Hans Erbe, Senior Director Corporate Logistics at Fujitsu Siemens Computers: “We could see the exact location of the train at all times, and were even able to detect when individual containers were trans-shipped during gauge changes, because this was when vibration levels peaked. The components and monitors were well packed and stayed safely within tolerance levels.”
On arrival in Hamburg today, Monday, 6 October, the green IT train was met by Bernd Bischoff, President and CEO of Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Dr Norbert Bensel, Head of DB Schenker and Member of the Management Board of DB Mobility Logistics AG.
Later today, the train will continue to its final destination. The monitors are destined for the FSC European distribution centre in Worms, Germany, and the chassis assemblies for the Fujitsu Siemens Computers' factory in Augsburg, Germany, where PCs and servers are built. Around 60% of Fujitsu Siemens Computers' manufacturing takes place in Germany.
Highlights of the train's journey - as well as pictures from the journey and maps of the route are available on the green IT train blog, www.transeurasiablog.com
Note to Picture Desks and TV news outlets:
Royalty-free photographs from the train's arrival are available from 3pm today at www.bahnimbild.de in the folder “Aktuelles”. This folder also contains stills from the train's departure in Xiangtang and graphical maps of the train's route.
TV-quality B-roll footage of the train's arrival in Hamburg, and of the Polish-German border crossing, is available from 4pm today via ATM transfer. Contact person: Petra Markstein, (+49) 30 347474-336.
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Fujitsu Siemens Computers
Fujitsu Siemens Computers is the leading European IT infrastructure provider with a strategic focus on next-generation Mobility and Dynamic Data Centre products, services and solutions. With a platform and services portfolio of exceptional depth, our offering extends from notebooks through desktops to enterprise-class IT infrastructure solutions and services offerings. Fujitsu Siemens Computers has a presence in all key markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with Infrastructure Services extending coverage to approximately 170 countries worldwide. Leveraging the strengths, innovation and global reach of our joint shareholders, Fujitsu Limited and Siemens AG, we make sure we meet the needs of customers: large corporations, small and medium enterprises and private users. The company is a pioneer in providing environmentally conscious technology and processes, throughout the lifecycle of each product, and is a member of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative and Green Grid organisation. To meet stringent international standards for corporate social responsibility, Fujitsu Siemens Computers is a member of the United Nations Global Compact. For more information on Fujitsu Siemens Computers, please visit: www.fujitsu-siemens.com, for corporate social responsibility please see www.fujitsu-siemens.com/aboutus/sor/index.html.
DB Schenker
DB Schenker combines all transport and logistic activities of Deutsche Bahn employing over 88 000 staff spread across about 2 000 locations in about 130 countries. With a turnover of some 18 billion Euros, we are a leading company - both in Europe and worldwide. DB Schenker is one of the leading globally integrated logistics service providers and has a leading goods transport rail network at its disposal. DB Schenker stands apart with its dense network of locations in the world's most important economic regions, in air and ocean transport, in European land transport, in contract logistics as well as in supply chain management. www.dbschenker.com
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