Sustainability

H.D. Cotterell is a family-run logistics company that has specialised in the reception and storage of cocoa beans and semi-finished cocoa products in the Port of Hamburg for over 130 years. We approach challenges with curiosity in order to continuously improve. As a company and employer, H.D. Cotterell feels a particular responsibility to protect the environment for future generations and to promote a shift towards greater sustainability. H.D. Cotterell therefore uses new, more sustainable technologies.

H.D. Cotterell committed to electric mobility over 10 years ago, and since then the proportion of electric cars in our fleet has been growing. Currently, the proportion of electrically powered vehicles is 75%. In the medium term, we will reach 100%.

Since 2020, we have been using climate-neutral electricity from our own photovoltaic system. For the electricity requirements that cannot be covered by the photovoltaic system, we purchase 100% green electricity. Further photovoltaic systems are already in the planning stage so that we can cover our electricity needs ourselves as far as possible.

In 2018, we participated as a warehouse operator in the logistics chain for the climate-neutral transport of organic raw cocoa beans from Belize by cargo sailboat via Hamburg to the Zotter chocolate factory in Austria. Since then, we have been responsible for the climate-neutral storage of the organic cocoa beans once a year and organise the climate-neutral onward transport of the goods to the Zotter chocolate factory in Austria.

We donate to a protective forest in Panama. Each of our employees is assigned 40 square metres of forest. This protects the forest from external influences such as deforestation or cultivation for at least 50 years.

As a logical consequence and necessity, we have set ourselves the goal of becoming a climate-neutral company within the shortest possible time and have taken the next step to achieve this. We have been calculating our carbon footprint since 2018 to make our savings measurable and comparable. In the base year 2018, we emitted a total of 753 tonnes of CO2. In comparison, we have achieved a 50.06% reduction in CO2 emissions in 2022 (2022: 376 tonnes of CO2). The proportion of emissions from container logistics has also been reduced by almost 50% thanks to the shift of cocoa container transport within the Port of Hamburg from road to water to our warehouse.

Our efforts are leading to a significant reduction in our CO2 emissions, but we have not yet been able to avoid them entirely. We therefore offset our emissions by participating in the climate protection project ‘Tropical Mix’. This project involves reforesting degraded land with mixed forests. This promotes sustainable timber production and cocoa cultivation, which in turn leads to more employment and thus improves the economic and social situation of the population.

H.D. Cotterell has been a climate-neutral company since 2021.