It often falls on logistics organisations to lead the change and there are many arguments for this. But consumers also have their part to play, and we should not underestimate the power of choice. How to lead your consumers to choose the best sustainable option? Pol Sweeney, EMEA VP Fleet Sales, at Descartes Systems Group spoke to us at our Delivering Green: Creating Sustainable Supply Chains online event on the 16th May about this.
The first step towards greening deliveries is understanding where they are clustered and what type of customers are involved. ‘You can then understand the incremental costs and impacts on the environment and add them,’ explains Pol. Deliveries can be done later in the day when congestion is less, for example.
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Being able to provide customers, both in the B2B and B2C sector, a timely breakdown on the environmental impact of each delivery can make a big difference. If consumers and customers know what their choice means, they can make a better decision. ‘It does not have to be just at the checkout,’ Pol points out. ‘Last mile and home delivery companies can also inform their repeat customers when they would be in their area.
In this way, consumers can know what is the most efficient time to order and get something delivered.’
‘There is no particular reason why sustainable delivery should be more expensive,’ Pol continues. ‘In fact there is a strong argument why it should be cheaper.’ The logic is that a sustainable delivery will be using fewer resources and less energy to achieve the same goal.
Pol also looked at how organisations are coping with the change to more sustainable operations. Managers should proactively look at the change management and the mindset change. The more efficient use of limited resources can be a problem for some organisations and this means leaders would need to carefully communicate each new step.
Pol also took part in our London Logistics Networking Event on the 24th May. You can read more about our in-person event on page 34.
You can watch Pol’s full presentation below. ✷
