DSV and Google Cloud sign SAF deal covering 9.7 million litres

DSV has signed a deal with Google Cloud covering up to 9.7 million litres of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), targeting a reduction of 25,000 tonnes of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions versus conventional jet fuel in air freight operations.

The agreement centres on a key air freight route used for Google Cloud shipments. It starts life as a pilot, but DSV frames it as a potential foundation for broader cooperation between the two companies on transport emissions.

The fuel matters as much as the volume. According to DSV, the SAF under the agreement is produced from waste and residue feedstocks and delivers an 85% reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional fossil-based aviation fuel.

"Our customers want practical ways to lower the emissions of the goods they move. By combining Google Cloud's ambition with our SAF programme, we turn a sustainability goal into measurable results in air freight," said Frank Sobotka, CEO of DSV's Air & Sea Division.

How does the book-and-claim model work?

The agreement uses a book-and-claim methodology. That lets Google Cloud receive the environmental attributes tied to SAF consumption without the fuel having to be physically burned on the aircraft carrying its shipments.

Under this approach, emissions reductions can be allocated to a specific customer independently of where the sustainable fuel is actually consumed. For shippers, that is the commercial point: they can book freight on any lane and still claim verified SAF attributes on their carbon accounts.

"This collaboration builds on our ongoing efforts to reduce emissions across Google Cloud's global logistics operations. Partnering on sustainable aviation fuel provides an auditable, transparent mechanism to address air freight emissions while helping accelerate commercial demand for lower-carbon fuels," said Brian Stewart, Senior Director, Logistics, Google Cloud.

What stops double counting?

The certification chain is tight. The SAF carries International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) and is produced exclusively from waste and residue materials, with palm oil and palm-derived feedstocks explicitly excluded.

Environmental attributes are issued, transferred and retired through the independent Sustainable Aviation Fuel Certificate Registry (SAFc Registry), working alongside DSV's internal tracking systems. DSV says these arrangements are designed to ensure each tonne of CO2e reduction is allocated to an individual shipper and never counted twice.

Why does demand-side commitment matter?

SAF supply remains the bottleneck. The logistics and aviation sectors are pushing to expand access to lower-emission fuels, but limited availability continues to hold back wider adoption.

The pilot is also a demand signal. Commitments from logistics providers and their customers, DSV argues, can help drive investment in SAF production capacity and improve availability over time.

That logic puts shippers in the driving seat. Corporate buyers with hard decarbonisation targets, like Google Cloud, effectively underwrite the premium on SAF, giving refiners a bankable offtake.

The deal's design, with auditable certificates, a named lane and a fixed fuel volume, offers a template other forwarders and large shippers could replicate. If the pilot scales, expect more book-and-claim SAF contracts tied to specific customers rather than specific flights.