Decarbonising the supply chain is one of the big challenges on our route to net zero.
We’ve rounded up a list of our favourite start-ups that are thinking outside of the box when it comes to improving supply chain sustainability.
Reducing the carbon footprint of a product can come in many forms, from production to last mile. We hope these 7 companies provide some inspiration, whatever the current stage of your sustainability journey.
Sunswap
Sunswap’s refrigerated transport employs roof-mounted solar panels to run the refrigeration system, keeping product cold whilst on the road. They claim that this results in ‘zero-emission’ transport refrigeration.
Using clean energy as an alternative to diesel obviously reduces the amount of carbon emissions in the transporting of products, and it’s great to see unique solutions being created for different product types.
Fernride
With a focus on shunting activities, Fernride offer electric vehicles fitted with remote-control functionality. Fernride’s platform can function as a stepping-stone to an eventual fully automated solution.
Dubbed teleoperation, vehicles are controlled from a remote location with a combination of human and machine inputs.
Decoupling the driver and vehicle allows a single operator to control multiple vehicles. This has the added benefit of reducing the time drivers spend waiting for vehicles to be loaded and ready to transport.
Rype Office
Rype remanufacture high-quality, unwanted office furniture. Their recycled furniture is then resold for less than half the price of retail, with an 80% reduced environmental footprint.
The ‘circular economy’ mission is for all items to avoid landfill. It’s therefore important to think about all aspects of your operation, from office furniture to the disposal of old equipment and storage. Could it be reused, repurposed or recycled?
Urb-it
With couriers on foot, bike and e-cargo fleet, Urb-it provide sustainable last mile delivery solutions for urban locations across Europe.
Using clean energy within cities not only hugely reduces the amount of carbon emissions typically used by petrol vehicles but also reduces fumes and sound pollution of built-up areas.
As we see air quality play a bigger part of city planning and infrastructure, these clean last mile technologies will be vital to maintaining logistics capacity in the future.
The Better Packaging Co.
The Better Packaging Co. are a carbon neutral, B-corp certified company that make sustainable packaging materials and designs for e-commerce businesses.
The carbon emitted in transporting their packaging to their customers is also offset by planting trees.
Sustainable packaging materials significantly reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfill, or worse in our oceans which can be extremely harmful to wildlife.
Parcelly
Parcelly’s mission is to simplify parcel collections, by allowing customers to pick up all their online purchases how, when and where is most convenient for them.
They connect Retailers and Carriers across all industries and of all sizes to a highly scalable and ever-growing PUDO network to offer customised last- and first-mile solutions, driving consumer convenience, operational efficiency and sustainability goals.
Phase Biolabs
Phase Biolabs upcycles waste CO2 into carbon negative chemicals and carbon neutral e-fuels using fermentation. With Industry currently generating tonnes of emissions, their goal is to capture some of the useful gasses and put to better use as e-fuels for transportation.
This process of capturing and recycling carbon is defined technically as a carbon negative activity, so can have big impacts on a companies net zero ambitions.
The future is green
To find out more about how to build a more sustainable supply chain, please do get in touch.
About the author
Ashleigh’s work focuses on the performance of data analysis and production of statistical models to derive insights.
Ash has worked with start-ups, defence contractors, retailers and the NHS to derive value from data and solve big problems.