How to Build Logistics for a Sustainable World

Stuart Delivery is a Business Reporter client.

David Saenz, COO of Stuart, looks at how the pioneering last-mile delivery service is playing a leading role in creating more sustainable cityscapes.

For logistics firms, achieving sustainability usually means looking at the transport types employed and the carbon emissions generated. Although these are excellent starting points, looking at the bigger picture and taking into account the role and responsibilities of the business as a whole is imperative.

Many existing frameworks can help companies structure their internal approach to sustainability. At Stuart, we use the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to help us envision what we can do in each of the 17 categories. Although not all are directly applicable, this process helps us think more broadly about our business and drive the biggest impact possible.

Logistics businesses should focus on three key pillars: reducing CO2e emissions per delivery; building a shared urban infrastructure; and creating sustainable foundations beyond each delivery.

1. Reducing carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions per delivery

In order to satisfy customers’ ever-rising desire to purchase online, it is estimated that emissions from delivery vehicles and the traffic they cause will increase by up to 32%,[Within which time period?] with city congestion rising by 21%, causing damage to health and urban environments.

“At Stuart, we know where we want to go: We want to lower the CO2e emissions for each of our deliveries to the minimum,” says COO David Saenz.

We have two tools at our disposal:

• Reducing the CO2e emission of our fleets

• Reducing the average distance a package travels

“The combination of these two components will result in effective CO2e emission reductions,” Saenz explains.

Green transportation has exciting potential and huge momentum, and is a sector that is continuously innovating and improving. Transitioning to a fully green fleet means being able to transition in the most effective way while also providing solutions that appeal to our courier partner community, and projects are being developed to deliver on this long-term promise.

We strongly believe that success lies in partnerships. Partnerships with vehicle manufacturers (of mainly small, agile two- or three-wheel vehicles) will help manage the balance between courier appeal, delivery efficiency and environmental impact. For example, Stuart works with Kyrole e-trailers, which can transport up to 250kg with zero emissions in an agile way.

Partnerships to help couriers retrofit their vehicles—replacing gas engines with electric engines, and helping transition to greener vehicles—is central to our strategy, as are partnerships with governments to help shape forward-thinking sustainability policies.

2. Building a shared urban infrastructure

The traditional business model for retailers and logistics operators includes building and operating their own fleet of vehicles. Yet, if providers were to pool clients’ volumes, they could optimize three core logistical elements: routing, capacity and vehicles. Building a tech stack and innovative delivery models that take these challenges into account is at the heart of Stuart’s mission to make cities less congested and polluted.

Through our B2B business model, we are creating a shared logistics infrastructure in urban centers across the U.K., France, Spain and Poland, which any client can use, powered by smart-routing algorithms that optimize delivery routes and parcel distribution.

By introducing our Hub to Home solution, for example, retailers can inject their parcels directly into city-center micro-hubs, cutting down the inefficiencies and distribution times of a traditional delivery network setup and enabling usage of a shared fleet of eco-friendly vehicles. We focus on eliminating the extra emissions created by the traditional multi-step infrastructure, which sees retailers often ship goods to their own extra-urban warehouse, then to a third-party carrier distribution center, only to be finally loaded onto a truck for distribution.[Distribution to end users? This doesn’t sound like the current U.S. model]

The Stuart solution will cut down distribution times, improve routing optimization and precision, and—most importantly—will significantly reduce carbon emissions.

3. Creating sustainable foundations beyond delivery

Last, but by no means least, Stuart’s goal is to build a wider company infrastructure around the concept of sustainable cities, which not only incorporates green vehicles and innovative models, but also takes into account the main pillars that uphold the business: the courier fleet, our employees and the wider urban community.

“We believe that sustainability will impact all for the better, and it is important for all players—governments, businesses and citizens—to cooperate on this matter,” says Saenz.

Internally, the construction of a culture of sustainability means that the initiatives that target the challenges we face, including having sustainability leads in each country and setting clear objectives around sustainability goals, are embraced on both an individual and team level throughout an organization.

Stuart is committed to being a force for change in this environment, and the impact that we can have goes beyond building green fleets and creating eco-friendly delivery solutions. We believe that by opening up the conversation to other players in the field—like-minded businesses, retailers, carriers and manufacturers of technology solutions—alongside government input, such as the Green New Deal proposal,[U.S. Green New Deal or EU Green Deal? CK] we can revolutionize the future of the urban landscape.

We’re at the tipping point for sustainability, and our aim is to show that not only can goods be transported and delivered in a sustainable, efficient and precise manner, but that an organization like Stuart, when considering the three pillars outlined above, can play a much larger role in building a sustainable world.

Want to join the revolution and find out more about Stuart’s sustainable delivery objectives? Get in touch!

^{This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credits: provided by Stuart Delivery}