How to Reshape Shipping Logistics with Sustainable Practices
Incorporating sustainable practices is crucial to stay ahead of the trends and reduce your environmental footprint. Don’t sweat it, though; it’s easier than you might think. Companies can keep operations efficient and cost-effective with sustainable shipping practices, all while using data to pinpoint areas for improvement. At OSM Worldwide, we know that eco-friendly practices are not only good for the planet, but for your business’s long-term success too.
Green Your Business, Improve Your Bottom Line
A smaller environmental footprint can mean a better bottom line. That’s because waste, unnecessary miles and energy usage aren’t just hard on the planet – they can be hard on your business’s bottom line, too. Taking just a few key steps can boost your efficiency and profitability over the long run.
Make Every Mile Count with Optimized Logistics
Optimizing fleet logistics, promoting remote work options, and improving last-mile efficiencies can help reduce fuel use and carbon emissions in delivery solutions. OSM leverages the USPS network as part of our OSM Premium Network®, which already delivers to people’s doors. The USPS has made significant strides in adopting sustainable practices, including adding electric vehicles to its delivery fleet starting in 2023 and implementing energy-efficient practices in its facilities. By partnering with the USPS as a last-mile delivery partner, OSM can lower the number of separate deliveries to a destination, reduce transportation emissions and promote greater efficiency. This not only supports our sustainability goals but also provides a more cost-effective solution for our business and our customers.
Cut Energy Consumption in Commercial Buildings
Implementing energy-efficient measures, such as LED and motion detection lighting, electric pallet jacks and forklifts, are small operational improvements that can help create significant carbon savings. Additionally, by increasing energy efficiency and partnering with a clean energy vendor to provide solar or wind power to the building, businesses can potentially reduce additional overall costs.
Embrace Eco-Friendly Packaging
Switching to eco-friendly and reducing or right-sizing packaging is an important part of conserving limited resources—and an area where business owners can make a real difference. In addition to incorporating more sustainable and biodegradable packaging options, another option is to include materials such as cardboard, pallets and office supplies, which can be recycled.
Commit to Carbon Neutrality
Offsetting remaining emissions through investment in verified greenhouse gas reduction or removal projects worldwide is one way that a company can strive towards earning a CarbonNeutral® certification. Displaying sustainability certifications and logos to customers demonstrate the company’s commitment to environmentally responsible practices.
Utilize Analytics to Achieve Greater Environmental Efficiency
Data from business intelligence tools and processes can be instrumental in helping companies precisely identify areas where they can reduce their environmental footprint. By using these tools or partnering with a shipper that has a robust system in place, a business can gather key sustainability metrics such as energy use, waste generation, and greenhouse gas emissions to make informed operational decisions.
Another significant benefit of business intelligence is the ability to compare energy usage and output year-over-year, allowing companies to track progress and identify areas where improvements have been made. By using data to inform sustainability initiatives, companies can work towards greater operational efficiency, reduce costs and improve brand reputation.
Tracking key metrics is essential for evaluating a company’s environmental performance, and OSM monitors several important metrics. These include electricity use, business travel (by car and flight), waste generation, water consumption, employee commuting and transportation data for trucks. By tracking these metrics, companies can identify areas of high environmental impact and develop strategies to reduce their footprint. Through regular analysis and tracking, it’s possible to achieve greater sustainability and reduce the overall impact on the environment.
Build Partnerships That Create Change
At OSM, we are committed to supporting more sustainable businesses. We actively seek out partnerships with environmentally-conscious companies that share our values and prioritize sustainability. By working with these like-minded businesses, we can collaborate to develop innovative solutions that reduce our collective environmental impact.
At the heart of our commitment to sustainability is our goal to help shippers in all industries deliver packages efficiently and cost-effectively while reducing their environmental impact. As a company that provides shipping and logistics services, we recognize the critical role we play in addressing global environmental challenges and that’s why we are committed to minimizing our impact. Our implementation of sustainable practices such as optimizing shipping routes, utilizing eco-friendly packaging materials and offsetting our emissions through carbon-neutral initiatives demonstrate our dedication to contributing to global efforts to create change and promote a sustainable future.
Learn more about our sustainability commitment.