The Greenery and Naturelle win the Lean and Green Award

Placed by Natuurlijk Naturelle on 10 November 2011 The Greenery and Naturelle win the Lean and Green Award

Lean and Green is a sustainable logistics programme executed by Connekt on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. In 2012, the programme will support 250 leading companies involved in sustainable logistics to reduce their CO2 emissions by over 20% within five years. Companies can become front-runners by submitting a plan of action that describes how they intend to achieve these goals. The plan of action must meet certain criteria.

Lean and Green Award

Lean and Green is an incentive programme initiated by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. The aim of the programme is to encourage businesses to attain a higher level of sustainability by taking measures that not only increase their efficiency, but reduce their ecological footprint. The Greenery has been assessed on the basis of a written plan that sets out their goals for CO2 reduction between 2009-2013 and defines their KPIs (key performance indicators). The KPIs of The Greenery should eventually result in a CO2 emission reduction of at least 25% per kilogram of the product sold in a period of five years.

The official presentation of the Lean and Green Awards is on Thursday, 10 November 2011. From that date on, The Greenery will be permitted to use the Lean and Green logo and the sustainability performance of its logistics activities will be regularly monitored by Connekt, the executive bureau for the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment in collaboration with the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO.

Sustainable logistics

The strategic pillar of The Greenery’s five ‘Healthy is more’ sustainability pillars is ‘Healthy business operations’. This pillar comprises the basic policy pursued by The Greenery towards continually improving its operational efficiency. “Sustainability is about achieving a balance between the economy, the environment and the well-being of your employees. This is what ‘Healthy is more’ aims to express,” says Philip Smits, General Manager of The Greenery B.V. The most significant savings can be achieved on energy consumption in the distribution centres, as well as by reducing vehicle mileage and fuel consumption for transport purposes. This sustainability policy enables The Greenery to deliver fresher products even faster with significantly lower CO2 emissions per kilogram of product.

Sustainability: a way of thinking

The measures taken by The Greenery in the area of sustainability are not limited to the sustainable logistics business plan. Sustainability is an integral part of The Greenery’s business operations and is aptly expressed by the LEAN philosophy. This philosophy is based on the conviction that continuous waste in the logistics process can be eliminated and the collaboration with employees and partners in the chain can enhance operational efficiency and shorten the logistics chain. Philip Smits commented, ‘The Lean and Green Award demonstrates that The Greenery’s logistics operations achieve this sustainability balance.’

Categorie: The Greenery, Naturelle, Lean and Green Award, Logistics, Sustainable, CO2