Shelley Harris, commercial director of Coventry-based pallet pooler IPP, on pooling, partnerships, and the circular economy.
While COVID-19 gave the much-maligned single-use plastics industry a free pass because of consumer health fears, the debate around the supply chain potential for circular economies hasn’t stalled. It continues to roll on, such is the gravitational pull of this spherical entity.
There is a realisation that circular economies are inevitable, not just from a profit and loss point of view, but a reputational standpoint. This is despite only nine per cent of global businesses currently being engaged with them.
Why? It’s thanks in no small part to the current Generation Z being far more forensic in their ethical buying habits. As consumers and future investors, they not only want to know where things originate from and where they end up, but will actively use the digital means at their disposal to name and shame those who fall short in their environmental hygiene.
What we have always described as ECOnomics is playing out on a global supply chain stage. This is where the environmental sustainability of circular models ultimately costs less than their linear equivalents in cash terms as well as reputational risk. Rampant inflation, cost of living crises, war in Europe and general geo-political instability has seen essential commodity costs sky-rocket, and highlight the weakest links in supply chains that are now defined by their fragility rather than their agility.
In our own sector, the humble wooden pallet has been the subject of over-inflated global timber prices, but at least it is already part of a circular economy where those costs and collateral reputational damage can be more effectively managed. It has, for a long time, been part of the solution rather than the problem.
In our own sector, the humble wooden pallet has been the subject of over-inflated global timber prices, but at least it is already part of a circular economy where those costs and collateral reputational damage can be more effectively managed. It has, for a long time, been part of the solution rather than the problem.
Older established supply chains need to wean themselves off linear dependency, while new starters and business disruptors need to re-design the archaic supply chains of yesteryear to release the full potential economically and environmentally. This means prioritising the replacement of high-risk products, packaging and materials with safe, secure and sustainable alternatives, to create a new value proposition that includes, for example, the reduction of unnecessary delivery legs to cut emissions, CO2 and NOx outputs.
To achieve this unlocking of potential, we need to work with suppliers to share their vision, as well as good and best practice. This helps build sustainable and collaborative partnerships for the future on trust and open-book relationships to leverage value for all. The discussion is no longer about simply reverse logistics, but reverse thinking around the entire process in the Gen-Z omnivores. Thinking about the ‘final mile’ includes unpacking current thinking around packaging.
Investing in this disruption from the norm and engaging with wider stakeholders through an industry-wide conversation not only creates momentum that keeps the narrative front of mind, but also drives the circular economy forward on its trajectory.
Source: IPP