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 Last month, IGD announced that the food and grocery industry has saved 124million HGV miles from UK roads through sustainable initiatives - exceeding its four year target a year early. Here we find out what companies have been doing to achieve this figure.
Sustainability continues to remain at the top of the agenda for both the food industry and the Government. Through the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) UK Sustainable Distribution initiative, food and grocery companies across the country have been partaking in innovative activities and taken off 124million road miles from UK roads. This is the equivalent of removing 2000 lorries from Britain's roads and conserving 60million litres of diesel fuel per year.
Originally spearheaded by companies involved in ECR UK under the auspices of the IGD, the activities have been extended across the industry, and now includes 40 of the UK’s leading household retailer and manufacturer brands.
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The initiative has taken the equivalent of 2000
lorries from Britain's roads | |
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Engaging in initiatives such as the use of double-deck vehicles and the sharing of lorries to deliver grocery products, these companies have significantly reduced the environmental impact of transporting food and groceries in the UK.
So how exactly have they taken miles off the road and can you make similar changes in your business?
Nestlé UK Ltd and Mars - Christmas confectionery deliveries
From September 2009, Nestlé and Mars worked together to jointly reduce the environmental impact of their Christmas confectionery deliveries to Tesco. The initiative, involved Nestlé and Mars sharing trucks to deliver combined loads of some of the UK's biggest selling Christmas confectionery treats, including Mars' Celebrations and Nestlé's Quality Street. The initiative has resulted in over 40 loads being combined - removing over 8,000 kilometres of duplicate truck journeys.
Nestlé and Mars came together in support of their joint commitment to the Food Industry Sustainability Strategy (FISS) target to reduce the environmental costs of food transport by 20%, by 2012.
By working closely with Tesco's supply chain team, Mars and Nestlé were able to synchronise their deliveries to each of the three regional distribution centres so that any part-load orders that either company receive, could be combined into one truck load. The Nestlé and Mars customer service and logistics teams then worked together to plan a single vehicle to collect from each company’s distribution centres, before delivering the combined orders to Tesco.
ASDA Stores Ltd and double-deck trailers
Over the last four years, Asda has successfully utilised a fleet of over 100 double-deck trailers on its depot-to-depot trunk activity. This has saved over 7million road miles per year.
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ASDA's double-decker trailers |
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Based on this success, Asda has been investigating the possibility of utilising a new type of double-deck trailer to service its stores. Currently 68 new specification double-deck trailers are being introduced into the fleet with the sole purpose of delivering to the store network. This first batch of store-friendly double-deck trailers will save another 4million miles per year.
These examples demonstrate that even in a highly competitive industry, companies remain committed to minimising environmental impact, meeting consumer demands, and at the same time reducing costs.
Saving 124million road miles is an outstanding achievement. However, one quarter of lorries on our roads are still estimated to be running empty on their way back from delivering goods. This offers huge scope for more companies of all sizes to implement similar activities, potentially saving millions more road miles in the UK.
The road miles saved have been generated through a mix of best practice internal projects and external partnerships between retailers and suppliers. IGD has helped to contribute towards the miles saved by providing the industry with a suite of online resources designed to capture and share best practice across the supply chain. These resources can be found at www.igd.com/ecr.
Participating Companies:
Advantage West Midlands, Boots UK Ltd , ASDA Stores Ltd, British Sugar plc, Bacardi-Martini, Booker Group plc, Brakes, Cadbury, Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd, Colgate Palmolive, Compass Group plc, Dairy Crest Group plc, Gerber Juice Company Ltd, Greencore Group plc, GSI UK, H J Heinz Co Ltd, Iceland Foods Ltd, Kellogg, Kimberly-Clark Ltd, Kraft Foods, L'Oreal, Marks & Spencer plc, Mars, Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK), Muller Dairy (UK) Ltd, Musgrave Group, Nestlé UK Ltd, Northern Foods plc, Palmer & Harvey McLane Ltd, Pepsico UK & Ireland, Premier Foods Group Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK, Reckitt Benckiser plc, Robert Wiseman Dairies plc, Sainsbury's, Tate & Lyle plc, Tesco Stores Ltd, The Co-operative Group (including Somerfield), Unilever plc, United Biscuits (UK) Ltd, Waitrose Ltd, Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, Wrigleys
About ECR UK
The ECR UK programme is led by supply chain directors from leading food and grocery retailers and manufacturers and is managed by IGD. The programme focuses on driving best practice between retailers and suppliers for the ultimate benefit of consumers. For more than 10 years it has provided a framework for a variety of projects with a key benefit being the use of a common language between retailers and manufacturers.
The ECR UK Executive board is co-chaired by Diane Carter from Sainsbury's and Chris Tyas from Nestlé. The Sustainable Distribution initiative is one of the key projects for the ECR UK initiative. For more information, visit www.igd.com/ecr.
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