Easy steps for last mile operators to reduce carbon emissions

# **Welcome to The Last Mile Prophets Videocast: The Last Word on The Last Mile**

In this episode, Marek Różycki and Peter MacLeod dive into the key findings of the 2023 Last Mile Experts Green Last Mile Report. They discuss the untapped sustainability opportunities for last mile operators and how businesses can easily make a positive impact.

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## **Original Video Transcript**

Welcome to The Last Mile Prophets videocast The Last Word on The Last Mile. The latest Last Mile Experts Green Last Mile Europe report highlights some low-hanging fruit. We picked through it after this modern Expo provides an integral ecosystem of screen-operated lockers, screenless autonomous Solutions, refrigerated lockers, and even personal Parcel lockers powered by an in-house developed software.

Well, Marak, the 2023 Green Last Mile Europe report has been published by Last Mile experts, and it’s come out with some interesting findings. And we’ve got — I’m sure we’re going to be dipping into this — but um, one thing that I’m going to ask is what can businesses do, do you think, according to the report, to gain some easy wins? You know what we’re going to call a low-hanging fruit when it comes to sustainability.

I know everyone, this is the really big thing, Peter, that there are so many things that could be done literally from zero. And you won’t believe this, but I think the first one is education and training. Just to tell customers, look, do you understand that this option is so much greener than, for example, out of home? If you’re using an efficient network, it can be two-thirds more carbon efficient than a to-door delivery. Actually, if your locker is slipper distance, it doesn’t really affect you too much because it’s around the corner. So that’s one thing, educating employees who pack items, maybe.

I don’t know if you had that P2P, you get a parcel with something the size of a matchbox in a box that’s sort of, uh, this big. So I think that’s crazy. You know, that’s the second thing, educating people in the warehouse. You know, how do you pack things, and educating the couriers. You know, you don’t need to drive in summer with your window open and the air conditioning on full and with your foot straight down on the throttle. You can plan, you can follow the route optimization tools. Even if you would like to do your own thing when and where you can, see that they’re more efficient. So I think an awful lot Peter can be done just by using existing capabilities, educating stakeholders, all stakeholders, and just saying, look, it is really, really easy.

Well, yes, education, communication, and I suppose still on the subject of communication, some businesses have a tendency to communicate their agreeing credentials with a slight pinch of salt, shall we say, someone exaggerated? Yeah, Peter, this was something, and it is something that really, really disappoints me because this particular report is not really produced on a commercial basis. It’s because we think it’s really important, and we want all stakeholders to understand what a big deal it is. And some of the players, particularly, I’m sorry to say those from North America, who sing from the rooftops about how green they are and what they’re doing, either and I don’t know which it is, I have a horrible feeling it’s going to be the latter of what I’m about to say, either for some reason don’t want to share the projects they’ve got or just don’t have them.

Because it’s not that we’ve really tried from various channels to talk to people, and invariably, I’d say almost with the big players, it’s not that they don’t hear about it, they just don’t want to share data. And this isn’t sensitive data, Peter. It’s not something that is going to have some huge competitive risk talking about what you’re doing in the Green Last Mile.

So you know what conclusion can you draw? I think it’s that they are not as green as they make themselves out to be, or they’ve got a few skeletons in the cupboard. It’s always challenging, isn’t it when you’re offered something as a fact, and you don’t have a resource to shine a light on it and to catch them out or to highlight where you think they may be wrong?

And hopefully, if enough of us are asking enough questions, then that attitude where we can greenwash will, hopefully, go away. We’ll have to wait and see because that’s a matter of time, but you would have thought that anyone who’s making efforts to reduce carbon in their supply chain, in their delivery chain, then that can only be positive. What you’d want them to shout about that.

Absolutely, and you know, Peter, to be absolutely fair, there are some players that have really helped as far as they possibly could, gone the extra mile, if you forgive the pun, to help. And you know, large groups like Group LA Post or in particular their Geopost subsidiary, or even in the UK, which used to be Home Delivery Network, they were really helpful. A lot of local heroes, particularly the Nordic posts, all of the Nordic posts were really helpful. So you know, there have been players that were able to really, and it wasn’t a big effort to share some of the stuff that they’re doing. A lot of smaller players, so you know, there’s a lot of great stuff out there. But it’s such a shame that we weren’t able to get all the big players on board. I mean, I’m hoping we got a promise from one other big player that next year they’ll reconsider. That’s another big European player. You know, the big breakthrough I think will be when the big US integrators actually decide that they should be part of the party. Hopefully, that’s gonna come on board because we’re not gonna give up. We’re going to share this report year on year, and I think at some stage, it’s going to be or maybe not name and shame, but it’s going to be fairly obvious that there’s some very big players who are not in there. And the reason not in there is not because we’re not asking, it’s because they’re not sharing the data. So you know, let’s see, but I think Peter, it’s a really big deal. It’s not just for us, it’s for our grandchildren, it’s for future generations. And the ironic thing is actually quite often, the solutions are not just ecological but they’re economical.

Absolutely, yes. You know, it used to be a barrier to going green by companies blaming the cost of such activities. However, if you’re running a carbon-friendly supply chain and delivery business, then obviously you’ve got an efficient business. And one that’s that’s obviously going to be you know, you’re not shipping air in the parcels, as you say, and you’re not over-revving your engines, you’re using hopefully carbon-neutral or carbon-free transportation as well. So yeah, let’s hope then that in the future, everyone will participate in the report, and they’ll be they’ll be embarrassed not to be doing it because they’ll be found out. We know how social media works.

So Marek, I would just like to say to our viewers, please let us know what you think about the Green Last Mile Report. We would be very interested to hear what you think your local delivery companies can be doing to make their operations a little bit more effective and a little bit less hungry on the environment. And for now, America, say thank you very much. Thank you for watching The Last Mile Prophets video for more free analysis of The Last Mile industry, check out our website at [source](https://example.com).

In light of the findings of the 2023 Last Mile Experts Green Last Mile Report,
Marek Różycki and Peter MacLeod discuss which straightforward sustainability gains a number of last mile operators are yet to take advantage of.