Driving towards sustainable logistics

Sustainability has been an important part of CitySprint’s strategy for years and the company has now achieved carbon neutral status. Mark Footman, CitySprint’s chief operating officer, shares his advice on creating a more environmentally-friendly fleet

‘Sustainability’ – gone are the days when it was just a nice-to-have or another buzzword. Over the last few years, it’s been propelled in both importance and prioritisation, and has now evolved into something that can no longer be ignored – both by businesses, and also the wider public.
    
From a business perspective, increasing concern around climate change and companies’ impact on the environment has turned sustainable business practices into a necessity. As expectations on corporate responsibility increase and transparency becomes more important than ever, businesses of all sizes, operating across every industry are recognising the need to act on this now.
    
This is of particular importance when it comes to the logistics industry. As the UK’s largest same day courier company, we’re incredibly conscious that due to the nature of our business, we have a duty to ensure that our operations are sustainable and that we do all we can to lower our carbon footprint to create an environment that’s fit for the future.
    
For us, sustainability has been an important part of our strategy for years, and our environmental action now falls under a core pillar of our CSR programme. But with so many potential areas for businesses to focus their attention on, we know it can be tricky to decide where to start.
    
Here we share our advice on the key areas we believe that businesses can, and should, prioritise.

Focus on the fleet

First, eco-friendly fleets are a must to lower carbon emissions. Moving away from diesel and petrol to add more alternatively fuelled vehicles to fleets is a ‘must’ on the to-do-list of fleet managers up and down the country today. Thankfully, due to advances in technology, the number and variety of zero-emission vehicles that are available for use in business’ fleets, or as part of the supply chain, is growing exponentially. This means there’s something out there to suit every company’s needs and budget.
    
As a business, we have been working hard to grow our green fleet over the last few years. We have been focussed on turning the range of vehicle types we offer into one of our core strengths, and are committed to having a fleet of 250+ green vehicles across the major cities that we operate in by the end of 2025.
    
For instance, our cargo bike fleet, which we first introduced in 2017, enables us to provide a zero carbon and highly efficient same day delivery service in the capital. The bikes are used to replace small vans and are considerably more nimble, able to navigate peak traffic better, and also reduce noise and air pollution in urban areas. In fact, each cargo bike that replaces a van saves over 4 tonnes of CO2 per year.
    
Cheaper to buy and maintain, cargo bikes hold several benefits. For instance, their lack of emissions means they can operate without being subject to the congestion or ultra-low emissions zones (ULEZ) in London and other cities around the UK. They can also take advantage of dedicated cycle lanes and take shortcuts through streets blocked off to motor traffic and park up close to their destinations. This means that they can complete journeys up to 50 per cent faster than small vans – allowing for couriers to easily drop off and pick up packages.
    
Meanwhile, electric vans are another great zero-emissions option. The latest addition of 40 new electric vans brings our green vehicle fleet to over 180 vehicles, with plans for more e-vans and cargo bikes taking us even closer to our target.
    
Best-suited for deliveries in metropolitan areas where there are many readily available charging ports, they are quieter than traditional vans, helping to lower noise pollution in cities. Plus, they’ve got the added benefit of saving eight tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions a year, making them an obvious choice for businesses.
    
Finally, bicycles – both manual and electrically-assisted – are a great option for the swift delivery of smaller items in urban areas. Electric motorbikes are also another viable inner-city option, which we use to support our same day and critical healthcare logistics in London. These bikes are ULEZ compliant, save 2.5 tonnes of CO2 annually, have a range of 137 miles and are another invaluable option for quick, zero-emission deliveries in cities and towns across the UK.

Waste and energy

While fleet operations understandably account for the largest proportion of a delivery company’s carbon emissions, there are other things that logistics companies can do across wider business operations to lower their impact on the environment.
    
This can include anything from using renewable energy across office sites and diverting business waste from landfill, all the way to reducing wider business energy consumption. It can also mean launching energy efficiency campaigns across warehouses and service centres to keep an eye on energy consumption – allowing businesses to make small changes as necessary to ensure they are consuming less.
    
These are all things that we as a business prioritise, and that should be a focus for other companies operating within the logistics space if they are truly to embrace sustainability.

Final thoughts

The bottom line is that a low-carbon economy is an essential requirement for all of our futures – both as businesses and as people.

We are immensely proud of the sustainability achievements within our logistics operations, which have helped us to achieve carbon neutral status in January 2022, 18 months ahead of schedule. And, looking forwards, these improvements will help ensure our continued success. But there’s no time to become complacent, and there is always more we can do.
    
With ever-increasing pressure on organisations to take their focus on environmental responsibility to the next level and ensure it runs across all of their operations, businesses both big and small must embrace a ‘can do’ mindset and be willing to invest now for future gain.