20 trees per electric forklift: Jungheinrich supports reforestation in Brazil

Jungheinrich has had a sales company in Brazil for 20 years. The intralogistics expert is celebrating its anniversary with a special campaign. Under the motto‚ “the environment wins twice”, Jungheinrich is promoting the use of electric forklift trucks: for every EFG sold or rented that replaces a diesel or LPG truck in the warehouse, 20 trees are planted in the Atlantic Forest on the east coast of Brazil. The campaign covers all internal combustion engine-powered trucks that are replaced by a Jungheinrich electric counterbalanced truck from EFG series 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

The background to the campaign is the still very high proportion of diesel and LPG forklifts on the Brazilian market. While in Europe the share of internal combustion engine trucks is currently only 18 per cent, in Brazil it is still around 50 per cent. “The high proportion of internal combustion engines on the Brazilian market shows how great the potential of our campaign is. We have the opportunity to really make a difference and thus make a real contribution to climate protection,” explains Vigold Georg, Vice President of Jungheinrich Latin America.

With its campaign, Jungheinrich wants to support its customers in Brazil on their way to green intralogistics and show that electric forklifts are the better choice in terms of productivity and sustainability. “True to the motto ‘the environment wins twice’, companies in Brazil can commit to environmental protection in two ways: firstly, they can significantly reduce their CO2 emissions by switching from an internal combustion engine to an electric forklift. An electric forklift powered by a lithium-ion battery, for example, emits on average up to 52 per cent less CO2e than one powered by a diesel engine. Secondly, every tree planted absorbs CO2 and thus counteracts climate change,” says Vigold Georg.

The seedlings are native species sourced from local growers. The planting is carried out together with Copaiba Environmental Association, a Brazilian environmental organisation specialising in reforestation in the Atlantic Forest. According to the WWF, this is one of the most species-rich and also most threatened tropical forests on earth.

Various Jungheinrich sites around the world are committed to the environment and implementing local projects. In line with the corporate strategy 2025+ and the goal of creating sustainable value, Jungheinrich employees worldwide are making their own suggestions. The large number of individual campaigns clearly shows how seriously each of the 18,000 Jungheinrich employees takes the issue of sustainability. In 2020, for example, more than a thousand trees and more than 45 native tree species were planted in Mumbai.