We operate two main warehouses, one in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands (90% of the volume) and one in Lutterworth, UK (10%). As our business grows, warehouse and transport management play a more crucial role. However, with this growth comes a responsibility to ensure that warehouse and transport operations are environmentally sustainable.

The key focus areas of our environmental approach are the reduction of our carbon footprint and our waste output. Our warehouse joins the Lean & Green initiative so that we could get a better understanding of how to achieve these reductions. Lean & Green is a network of logistics service providers and transportation companies in the EU and North America working towards the goal of reducing our carbon footprints. These goals are aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement, which targets net zero emissions by 2050.

Energy consumption is one of the most significant contributors to our warehouse's environmental footprint. Our Dutch warehouse in Oldenzaal is running on 100% renewable energy (electricity) generated from wind, whereas our UK warehouse is on mix of renewable and non-renewable energy. In 2024 the energy efficiency for our Dutch warehouse is 11.8 kWh/m2 and 17.9 kWh/m2 for the UK site.

Moreover, our warehouses have achieved these energy savings through investments in energy-efficient equipment and technical adjustments such as replacing standard fluorescent lighting with LED lighting and motion sensors. We have also raised awareness of energy consumption and resource usage amongst our employees.

A major aspect of warehouse sustainability is waste management. Implementing recycling programs for cardboard, plastic, and other packaging materials can reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. Our warehouses have set an ambitious goal on waste: by 2023, 90% of our waste must be recycled, with the ultimate ambition of creating a zero-waste system.

In the Netherlands, our warehouse has started the zero-waste project to increase the level of recycling. As a result, in 2024 we achieved a recycling rate of 91.7%.

Transport is a big contributor to our carbon footprint, and our Local Hero parcel carrier network is a substantial component of this. Our warehouse has started to visualise the carbon footprint from transport and are building a dashboard that tracks the average amount of CO2 per parcel, utilizing both inputs from the parcel carriers, and by calculating the footprint in the linehauls. In 2023 the total CO2 emission of our outbound transport is 64.8 tCO2e.

At the same time, our warehouse is actively collaborating with new players in the market who are offering more sustainable ways to achieve last-mile delivery. The combined effects of established carriers’ sustainability improvements, the optimization of linehauls and the use of more sustainable carrier options have led to an overall reduction in carbon emissions per parcel shipped across our network worldwide.