Let’s take a step back and think about what sustainability actually means. According to Mcgill University, sustainability is defined as ‘’meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to natural resources, we also need social and economic resources’’.
Proof of better sustainability and greener practices are now top requests from consumers. They expect to deal with environmental choices and this attention is influencing business strategies requiring the implementation of well-defined sustainable processes.
Among all market players, seems that Retailers and Carriers have received the most criticism for not adapting fast enough to the customers’ prominent requests.
The trend is clear:
- Shoppers prefer brands and retailers who live up to their responsibility when it comes to environmental protection
- Consumers prefer having their goods delivered at home to reduce environmental impact
The last mile plays an important role in customers’ decisions when considering sustainability. The data below from Metapack Delivery Benchmark Report 2022, demonstrate how strongly consumers believe in acting on last-mile to stick to their beliefs.
According to the data collected by Metapack, around five times the number of consumers would accept longer delivery times rather than paying more to offset carbon emissions.
Consumers are willing to adapt their needs to be sustainable. The figures represented in the chart below are impressive: only if organizations embrace and apply green strategies, can count on shoppers’ loyalty.
Here it is where, last-mile, could represent a meaningful lever to adopt a real sustainable business. It has, in fact, a huge potential to improve green efficiency, leveraging innovative technologies to help meet customer demand (according to Forbes).
Organizations are called to build a strategy towards sustainability, quickly adopting environmentally friendly delivery choices and avoiding damaging and ineffective journeys.
Integration between the various players is key in managing at best the order journey taking into consideration sustainability approaches from supply chain costs to customer requests.
Hence better communication for a successful first delivery that can minimize multiple deliveries attempts, reducing CO2 emissions, should be a top priority!
Milkman Technologies can play an important role in this direction, enabling Shoppers to select green options, and helping Organizations to feed customers’ expectations around sustainability.
