Three Greener Ways To Deliver The Goods

Eco-friendly product delivery solutions for green businesses

Most businesses have woken up to the fact that it’s time to take some responsibility for protecting our environment. One of the best ways to do that is to take a greener approach to many aspects of business. As well as implementing measures such as purchasing carbon credits, reducing packaging consumption and reusing and recycling wherever possible, it’s also essential to address one of the biggest causes of carbon emissions: deliveries. While some businesses take the step of analysing and optimising delivery routes, another option is to look for alternative ways to deliver your products. Here are three options.

There are many options for ethical business to find greener delivery alternatives

Deliver By Bike

If you’re doing local deliveries of small individual products, such as gifts, flowers and parcels, then you can’t get much greener than a bicycle. You don’t need fuel to run it and it produces absolutely no carbon emissions. Of course, there are limits to what you can carry on a bike and how far you can easily go. However, using a bicycle often means being able to avoid the worst traffic congestion so you can deliver items even faster, especially in crowded cities. An additional benefit of using an electric bike is fitness; it’s a good way for couriers to get their daily exercise. Of course, for those who want a little more oomph or speed, there’s always the option of an electric bike. Many electric bikes will go about 10 miles on a single charge. And adding a couple of batteries and a trailer to an electric bike increases the possibilities for both cargo and distance.

Go Electric

Electric is also the way to go for our second option: delivery vans. Little white vans are the mainstay of delivery businesses around the world but they also produce a significant amount of the carbon dioxide produced by freak businesses (according to recent UK research). An electric delivery van, when fully charged, will take you about 50 miles which might be enough for most medium-range deliveries. Using this method increases the amount and weight of cargo you can carry, which can be useful for delivering products like bottled water cooler refills. You will have to replace the batteries at 3 to 5 year intervals. If you need to make deliveries further than 50 miles away, then consider a hybrid van, which has both a battery and a gas tank. Hybrid delivery vans will cut carbon emissions from this part of your business by about 50% and will eliminate the cost of fuel.

Change Your Fuel

A third option is to change the type of fuel you use in your delivery fleet. Instead of petrol or diesel, consider some form of biofuel. In some cases you may have to convert engines while in others you may find that the right kind of biofuel can be used with a diesel engine. Using biofuel can help you recycle substances such as cooking oil (a common ingredient in biofuel) and can reduce both fuel costs and carbon emissions. Using this type of fuel gives you a limitless delivery distance which can be important to some businesses.

These three options can help any business looking to find greener alternatives for product delivery. Why not try one today?

Sharon Hurley Hall writes for Eden Springs,  the UK’s No.1 water cooler supplier, which is now trialling electric delivery vans.

 
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