You may be thinking that it’s good to be green and it is. Any colour you like so long as it’s green would Henry Ford’s new mantra. In fact, it’s the mantra of many courier companies these days. From pale green to dark green, environmental awareness is essential in all businesses let alone a courier or transport business.

But it has to be done properly.
Using LPG or Electric vehicles do not make you a greener more environmentally aware company than Joe Bloggs down the road, you see there is more to your business being greener than what fuel you use. I have had courier companies ring up and moan about not getting a green business award (we got ours in 2007, one of the first in the UK). I ask them what else they offered as evidence in the awards application… “err nothing else, I run on electric I am green, that’s enough”. Well that’s why you didn’t win. You need to be doing more.

I have recently become aware of what I call Green Wash in couriers. For example I share subcontractors with a proclaimed leading courier company, the subcontractor was moaning about having to read and sign that he understood our green policies and green driving techniques – the real green courier company whom he also worked with didn’t offer or ask for this.

Damning with faint praise…
He went on to say they have electric vehicles and he was annoyed that the electric vehicles didn’t actually complete any deliveries – they just sat there and switched on for the media and they are getting heaps of work from being green!
Well, that’s not being green and it’s not ethical. It’s a start, a step in the right direction but the lack of ethics completely negates the positive – what good are their electric vehicles if they don’t get used?

So how do you become a green courier business?
You start with the end in mind and lower everything that has carbon emissions. You start with the office and finish with the customer.
Some couriers seem to think offsetting their carbon emissions absolves them from doing anything else, which is sad in a way – their policies need to be more joined up and so does their thinking. Or they stop servicing their vehicles, highly maintained vehicles run more efficiently, but all that is forgotten when it comes down to what fuel is used.

You may like this article here, that talks about waste and other aspects of making your business greener. The biggest enemy of green is waste, the vehicle that don’t get used – waste, the packaging that doesn’t get recycled – waste, the mobile phones that are out of date and kept in a box ‘just in case’ – a waste.

When proclaiming you are green remember there is more to being green than the fuel or vehicle you use. Remember what could happen to your reputation if you are found out to be green washing. It would take more than a few well prepped press releases to get you off the hook – just ask Primark and Mark’s and Spencer.

Sarah