Prologis, Inc announced that it has completed the sale of a 3.5 million square foot (346,000 square meters) portfolio of UK industrial properties to Blackstone, one of the world's leading investment and advisory firms. The aggregate sales price was approximately $335 million, of which $295 million was Prologis' share of the proceeds.

The portfolio comprises 13 properties located in England's Midlands and Yorkshire. The properties are 100 percent leased with an average unexpired lease term that exceeds nine years.

"We were pleased with the amount of interest this portfolio garnered as the combination of quality assets and lease term appealed to multiple investors," said Philip Dunne, president of Prologis Europe. "We have sold this portfolio as it no longer fit within our investment strategy, and offered us the ability to redeploy our capital."


As of December 31, 2011 Prologis had approximately 21 million square feet (more than two million square meters) in properties and assets under development in the United Kingdom.

DHL Freight offers GoGreen road services for carbon neutral transportation
DHL Express provides worldwide GoGreen courier servicest

DHL will be the official logistics partner during Denmark's EU presidency. All Danish Ministries will use DHL's carbon-neutral GoGreen products and services, so reducing the direct environmental impact of the meeting activities as well as setting a signal for social and economic responsibility. Across its business units, DHL responded to a sponsorship invitation from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting the sponsorship of "Sustainable Products and CleanTech solutions."

After DHL Express had already been working closely with the Danish Government during the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15), DHL is now expanding this partnership by serving the Danish needs with both its DHL Express and DHL Freight business units. While DHL Freight will handle all road-based logistics, DHL Express is providing its worldwide courier services.

"It is a great honor for us to provide our environmentally friendly services to the Danish Ministries. We are convinced that our GoGreen products are a perfect match to support the presidency to reach their sustainability goals", says Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL.

Danish Presidency is expected to be certified as sustainable
The GoGreen services of DHL Freight and DHL Express are part of the Danish Presidency's sustainability initiatives. The Danish Presidency is arranged according to the ISO20121 standard and is expected to be the first Presidency to be certified as sustainable. With the carbon-neutral GoGreen services, DHL will neutralize all CO2 emissions from the shipments and transports by purchasing carbon credits from internationally recognized climate protection projects.

Deutsche Post DHL was the world's first logistics company to offer carbon neutral shipping services for its customers. As part of its sustainable business and corporate responsibility efforts, the company is continuing to extend its portfolio of CO2 neutral products.

Deutsche Post DHL is committed to minimizing the impact of its business on the environment. With its environmental protection programme GoGreen, the first of its kind in the industry, the Group has set itself ambitious targets. By 2020 Deutsche Post DHL aims to improve the carbon efficiency of its own activities and those of its subcontractors by 30%.

A year ahead the deadline Deutsche Post DHL reached its interim target- a CO2 efficiency improvement of its own activities of 10 percent by 2012. By 2020 the carbon footprint per mail item, transported ton kilometre or square metre of used space is to be cut by almost one third over 2007 levels. Measures include optimizing the air and vehicle fleet, increasing energy efficiency, developing innovative technologies and encouraging employees to reduce carbon.

The Port of Portland and ICTSI Oregon, Inc. recently welcomed a newly expanded containership service offered by Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Sud.

This expanded service connects the Pacific Northwest and the Mediterranean with direct calls and fixed-day weekly service. It will also offer feeder connections to the Far East, Middle East, Indian Ocean, Latin America and West Africa.

By bringing more ships to Terminal 6 and improving the regularity of the calls, the service will provide a more efficient, dependable and competitive option for shippers utilizing the Port of Portland.

“This comes as very good news, and it will significantly increase our volumes out of Portland,” said Lee Goodwin, manager, international transportation for Boise Inc. “Using the enhanced weekly service will improve efficiency, cost savings and flexibility in our schedules.” Boise Inc exports containerized paper products from Pacific Northwest mills through terminal 6 at the Port of Portland.

The port rotation for the newly configured North America West Coast service will be: Cartagena, Manzanillo (Mexico), Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Manzanillo (Mexico), Manzanillo (Panama), Cartagena, Caucedo, Tangier, Valencia, Cagliari, Livorno, Genoa, Marseilles-Fos, Barcelona, Valencia, Tangier and back to Cartagena.



“Portland offers a strong import and export market with a newly deepened navigation channel and excellent intermodal rail, truck and barge connections,” said David Trzyzewski, vice president of sales and marketing for ICTSI Oregon, Inc.

ICTSI Oregon, Inc. operates the container terminal under a 25-year lease with the Port of Portland. Parent company International Container Terminal Services, Inc. operates 22 container terminals and port projects in 17 countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Portland marks the company’s first entry into the U.S. market.

“Portland is well connected with Ports worldwide through a modern container terminal operated by ICTSI Oregon, Inc. – a top global stevedoring and terminal operating company,” added Steve Mickelson, marine marketing manager for the Port of Portland.

The global pharmaceutical Group Roche has awarded logistics contracts for Greece to Kuehne + Nagel. The two companies have jointly developed an environment-friendly logistics solution which can substantially reduce CO2 emissions.

Kuehne + Nagel transports temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products for Roche which have to be kept within clearly defined temperature ranges throughout the entire transport from pick-up to the customer (between +2°C and +8°C and between +15°C and +25°C). Usually, such products are transported by airfreight even over relatively short distances. For its business in Greece, however, the pharma company sought a more environment-friendly alternative which maintained the highest quality standards while at the same time achieving a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions.

Based on the logistics provider's own 'KN PharmaChain' product, the Kuehne + Nagel specialists collaborated closely with the customer to develop a solution that ideally fulfills all requirements. 'KN PharmaChain' is a Europe-wide overland transport service for pharmaceutical products. The service is constantly further developed and expanded. It uses state-of-the-art refrigerated trailers which permit exact temperature control and efficient double-stack loading. The majority of the tractor units conform to the Euro¬5 standard. The network, which is certified in accordance with Good Distribution Practice-Standards (GDP), guarantees an unbroken refrigeration chain in road transport.

In the solution that has been developed, the shipments originating from various Roche production plants are consolidated by Kuehne + Nagel and transported to Greece under temperature controlled conditions. Compared with air transport, substantially less fuel is consumed for the same distance. Furthermore, the passive temperature control packing, which was previously required, is no longer needed, thus reducing the volume of the shipment as well as saving packing material. As a result of these measures, the CO2 emissions are reduced by around 85%. The remaining CO2 is offset by a project of the organisation myclimate, which is being financed with a one-time payment by Kuehne + Nagel.

"The implementation of this project is the result of a close partnership in the fields of sustainability and green logistics," says Dirk Reich, Executive Vice President and member of the Management Board of Kuehne + Nagel International AG. "This clearly shows that Roche and Kuehne + Nagel do more than pay lip service to the protection of the environment," he adds.