[asset_ref id=”446″]The Award for Contribution to Environmental Improvement has grown to be one of the most popular categories, attracting increasingly impressive entries.
Although there were plenty of very worthy projects and initiatives there were three entries that really stood out. Primark tackled the problem of waste cardboard and plastic hangers at its retail outlets.
The company created a waste recycling centre and used return trips from store deliveries to transport cardboard and hangers to the centre.
Constellation Europe, a wine importer, moved from importing product in bottles to transporting in bulk containers and bottling in the UK, braving the traditionalist constraints of the wine industry. This was a £100m strategic move that saw the building of a state-of-the-art bottling and warehousing facility in Avonmouth with the saving of 250,000 km of HGV movements a year. The use of rail has saved a further 1,500,000 truck miles a year and the introduction of lightweight bottles has positively impacted the company’s carbon footprint. Considerable environmental improvements – however, there was one entry that stood out.
Marks & Spencer is now three years into Plan A, the retailer’s industry-changing environmental strategy which has become an intrinsic part of the way the organisation operates. Working with DHL Supply Chain in the general merchandise operation, the partnership has achieved a 9.5 per cent reduction in carbon emissions – some 3,461 tonnes year 2009/10 vs 2007/8 – a 96 per cent recycling rate and through using a control tower approach to deliveries has achieved significant cost savings. The company has been instrumental in the development of the Teardrop trailer and has incorporated environmental thinking into everything it does, from removing rollon racks for garments to achieve greater vehicle usage, to replacing some 120 distribution centres with four huge sites – the first of which is carbonpositive. For the judges, this was clearly the winner.
Winne
M&S in partnership with DHL Supply Chain
Shortlisted
Babcock International Group
Marine Division
British Gas
Deutsche Post DHL
Robert Mcbride
Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics
Wincanton
Primark
Constellation Europe
M&S in partnership with
DHL Supply Chain
Siemens
