Online trading activities have an ever-increasing influence on the environmental impact, but at the same time, awareness of sustainability and environmental protection issues has grown in recent years, which is why consumers are also increasingly choosing sustainable companies for their purchases.
So, if you own an e-commerce platform and want to keep up with the times and the big issues that move public opinion, you will have to take care to make your sales and delivery processes sustainable, and this is where the sustainable logistics, which was developed specifically to reduce the environmental impact of online sales.
In this article, we will look at what is meant by sustainable logistics, and what steps every e-commerce owner can take to reduce its environmental impact.
What is sustainable logistics?
The term sustainable logistics refers to a set of activities, procedures and technologies that aim to reduce the environmental impact of the supply chain in itself, but still maintaining a high company performance, as well as the quality of the service offered and competitiveness in the specific sector. It is a process that concerns the entire chain of production and movement of goods, but this also includes e-commerce, which can adopt sustainable behaviour to reduce its environmental impact.
Indeed, it has to be said that e-commerce plays a rather important role with regard to the environmental impact of the logistical process, and in the next few lines we will see why. First of all, the first issue that can be highlighted is that of the packaging for the shipping parcels, which, on the one hand, are necessary so that the objects arrive at their destination intact and protected from any damage, on the other hand, very often all this material is not reused, and therefore becomes waste.
In addition, much of the transport is carried out on rubber, and it has been shown that in Italy many means of transport are old and polluting, and especially in the final part of the delivery to the customer, the levels of urban pollution. It should also be taken into account that the offer of fast deliveries has led to more vehicles moving not fully loaded, so that all deliveries can be made within the customer's timeframe.
What e-commerce can do to be more sustainable
That said, it is now clear that it is also necessary for e-commerce to adapt to current environmental trends, and thus take concrete steps to reduce its environmental impact. But how? Clearly, there are activities that do not depend solely on the individual e-commerce company, but which must be subject to regulations governing the entire logistics industry, but it is equally true that everyone must do his or her part by adopting correct behaviour, which concerns both the logistics process and the production process, with particular attention to energy consumption.
Precisely with regard to this last point, a very useful investment is to designing and building warehouses and production facilities following specific regulations regarding energy consumption, the use of alternative energy sources, and waste recycling. Similarly, it is necessary to have low-polluting means of transport, e.g. electric ones.
But there are also small everyday actions that can reduce the environmental impact of an e-commerce business, and which certainly require less investment than reorganising the vehicle fleet and refurbishing warehouses and production facilities.
For example, a brand that wants to convey to the customer the care it has for the environment can do so primarily by using sustainable packaging and packaging, and therefore of biodegradable or fully recyclable materials, and alongside this choice, there is also a correct consumer information on how to dispose of packaging, so that the materials can be recycled and reused.
Recycling and reuse of materials must also be a must within one's own operations, starting with processing waste, which must be reduced as much as possible and reused.
Why choose sustainable logistics?
Sustainable logistics is part of a broader context of the adoption of green policies by a company or an ecommerce business, and in recent times more and more companies are trying to integrate sustainability into their revenue needs. The good news is that finding a compromise between these two elements is entirely possible; indeed, it also has benefits particularly on the impact the company has on its customers and how they perceive its mission.
As we have said, people are increasingly sensitive to environmental issues, and seeing a brand that is aware of certain issues doing its part to combat them will certainly have a good reputation among consumers, thus becoming more competitive. But choosing sustainable logistics not only has reputational advantages, it also produces a cost cutting, related both to the optimisation of internal processes and the actual saving of energy and materials, e.g. packaging.
Thus, we see that the choice of a sustainable production and logistics model certainly entails initial investments and a planning of the various activities and brand identity in a green key, but it is a choice that brings numerous advantages, both in terms of lowering the costs of materials or energy, but also in terms of the reputation of the brand in a circle of customers particularly sensitive and attentive to environmental issues. In addition to all this, it must also be emphasised that having a good reputation with one's target audience leads to a increased sales, but also to the’acquisition of new customers through word of mouth and positive reviews, which must always be accompanied by effective digital marketing and promotion of one's products and services in order to expand one's market and make international shipments.
