Working together to improve sustainability across the supply chain

Here at CHEP, we understand that sustainability is extremely important to the modern business, and as such we make sure that it is fundamental to the way we do our own business, and underpins our business model. As part of our commitment, back in 2010 we devised a five-year plan with targets to contribute to a more sustainable supply chain. Five years on and we are delighted to report that we have achieved these targets six months ahead of schedule by:
> reducing CO2 emissions by 20%,

> achieving Chain of Custody Certification* for 100% of timber purchased, and

> stopping any wood waste from our own Service Centres being sent to landfill.

The five-year plan has been underpinned by a number of programmes designed to achieve these three core targets, and also helping customers to reduce their impact across supply chains. For example, customers can use the ‘Power of Pooling’ tool (www.powerofpooling.com) to calculate the environmental and cost savings of working with CHEP. This tool uses a questionnaire and lifecycle analysis methodology to estimate a customer’s carbon emissions, wood and landfill waste and annual pallet expense. Using our pooled pallet system can reduce all of these.

Another key initiative is the transport collaboration programme which helps businesses optimise costs and reduce their environmental impacts. The programme helps partners to realise the sustainability benefits of sharing road, rail or inland waterways. Last year CHEP Europe partnered with over 100 customers to eliminate more than 5 million kilometres of empty truck haulage and 5,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Since the start of the transportation collaboration programme in 2012, we have eliminated more than 73 million kilometres of empty truck haulage and the associated 57,715 tonnes of CO2 emissions from the supply chain.

Commenting on the programme’s achievements Iñigo Canalejo, CHEP Europe Sustainability Senior Manager, said: “We have been working on different initiatives to ensure we were able to meet the sustainability targets. This early achievement is thanks to the huge collective efforts of our employees and it makes us proud. We are focused on building a long-term, sustainable business that serves our customers, employees and shareholders and the communities in which we operate.”

* Chain of Custody certification is a mechanism for tracking certified material from the forest to the final product to ensure that the wood, wood fibre or non-wood forest produce contained in the product or product line can be traced back to certified forests.

www.chep.com