32 SCS:THE EUROPEAN SUPPLY CHAIN EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2008 DECEMBER 2008 SUPPLY CHAIN STANDARD
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Environmental Improvements Sponsored by Kuehne + Nagel
Shortlisted
CitySprint
Ekol Logistics
Vodafone
Am Pall, fleet and
specialist services director
of CitySprint, accepts the
Environmental
Improvements Award.
Handing over the trophy is
Glenn Lindfield, Kuehne +
Nagel’s managing director
of contract logistics, North-
West Europe (right). Also
pictured is host Jeremy Vine.
Winner
CitySprint
In previous years the judges have been disappointed that
few entries emphasised the environmental, sustainability
or wider Corporate Social Responsibility aspects of their
submissions. According to the judges: “Few have used
environmental improvement to develop a competitive
advantage.” However, this year it is different, “now we are
seeing the emergence of this starting to take shape.”
Ekol is one of the largest logistics service providers in
Turkey. The company has started on the journey to becoming
green and is trying to reduce its carbon footprint by moving
more goods by rail. Although the judges see this initiative as a
good first step, it is still early days.
On a corporate level Vodafone is doing an enormous
amount on green. The company has committed to reducing
its global CO2 emissions by 50 per cent by 2020, against its
2006-7 performance and has joined the Carbon Disclosure
Project’s supply chain leadership collaboration initiative,
which enables Vodafone to use CDP methodology for
measuring greenhouse gas emissions in a consistent format
across its suppliers. Over the last eight months the company
has expanded its catalogues to incorporate environmental
performance of products and services based on the
greenhouse gas footprint reported by the supplier using the
CDP format. This has helped buyers to make environmentally
sound decisions where possible.
The initiative has gone a long way to encouraging field
engineers to take a balanced decision on selecting a green or
greener product. The judges were particularly impressed by
Vodafone’s commitment to translating the company’s CSR
policy into practice within the procurement process and with
the team’s engagement with this project. So much so, that the
judges considered them a strong contender for the Team of
the Year Award. But for the Environmental Improvement
Award there was one clear winner.
CitySprint is a UK-based courier company offering sameday,
next-day and international courier services through its
network of 30 service centres across the UK. It operates a fleet
of 1,500 vehicles and manages millions of deliveries each year
for its clients. The company has been passionate about its
commitment to green issues since 2002 when it launched an
environmental programme aimed at reducing wastage,
energy consumption and emissions. In March this year
CitySprint appointed a full-time CSR manager who reports
directly to the executive team.
Each service centre has an environmental guardian
tasked with reviewing the centre’s environmental impact
and every staff member has been provided with an
environmental training manual which details CitySprint’s
environmental policy.
The judges viewed CitySprint as a company that
differentiates itself on green issues. It has looked at different
transport modes, including walking and using bicycles – the
company has the largest bicycle fleet in London, travelling
The company’s spread on applying
green has been across the whole
board – it’s pretty comprehensive.
21,000 miles per week, recommending it to clients whenever
appropriate. It also has the human-powered Citytrike for
bulky packages and in 2007 CitySprint was the first courier
company in the UK to add an electric motorbike to its fleet.
The company is expanding its fleet of electric vehicles, uses
Smart cars, which offer a 20 per cent reduction in emissions
compared to diesel vans, and is currently researching the
possibility of introducing electric Smart cars. Dual fuel
vehicles are also used.
The judges were impressed: “The company’s spread on
applying green has been across the whole board – it’s pretty
comprehensive. One dimension of this is their carbon-offset
programme; they give clients the choice to have a
retrospective charge applied to jobs that use a carbon
producing vehicle. Choices are: clients can select monies
generated from the environmental support fund for
CitySprint to invest with an approved carbon-offset company,
they can select monies generated for sustainable
development projects – such as energy efficiency
programmes – they can even go back to CitySprint and they
will refund the carbon cost and the client can invest it into
new green vehicles or other green projects.”
The Environmental Improvement Award had to go
to CitySprint.
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