Navigate clean air zones
With more cities bringing in restrictions to prevent high polluting vehicles entering central zones, now is a good opportunity to review how regular bulk deliveries from suppliers are arriving at your venue.
Consider collaborating with other food and drink businesses to make use of micro-consolidation centres where suppliers can drop off in bulk and can fulfil smaller and more regular last-mile deliveries to your business. This is a smart way to influence the footprint of your supply chain and have a positive impact on local air quality.
Address the last-mile delivery
Consider what happens once your products leave your kitchen or warehouse. How are they arriving at your customer’s doorstep? Many food and drink businesses are addressing food sourcing and sustainable waste management, investing in making their products and services more sustainable but this means they often forget this last step.
The last mile is a highly polluting part of the supply chain and with the huge rise in subscription based food businesses, direct to consumer goods from the likes of breweries and coffee roasteries, as well as a general rise in deliveries post pandemic, increased van journeys in our cities is having a big impact on air quality.
So consider more sustainable carbon saving delivery options, including cargo bikes, which slash carbon at the source, making any business model inherently more sustainable.
Packaging returns
Work with suppliers and carriers to find the best low-carbon approach to dealing with reusable packaging returns.
In cities, developing efficient reverse logistics can have a huge impact on carbon, congestion and air quality. Consider partnering with companies which have developed the technology for food and drinks brands to make it easier to swap single use packaging for reusables.
The future
By integrating these sustainable practices, hospitality businesses can not only reduce the environmental impact of their operations, but also appeal to increasingly environmentally conscious consumers who are prioritising businesses who not only have sustainability at their core, but who can prove the effectiveness of their environmental policies.