Not a day goes by without a green initiative being presented. Read: projects that rely largely on sustainable development. And this at all levels of the economic activity “transport & logistics”.
The many initiatives by manufacturers to make their vehicles more “environmentally friendly” are now well known. In this respect, we have a special mention for the first electric Renault Kangoo ZEs that the partnership of grid operators Infrax recently put into service. Although this is still a pilot project that the Flemish government is co-driving, it is no less exemplary of a more fundamental trend. Our Dutch neighbours are not lagging behind. For example, trucks that comply with Euro 5 have recently become the majority (54% of the fleet) above the Moerdijk. And the growth curve of “clean vehicles” – including EEV – is downright steep.
The green flag is also increasingly being raised above the new industrial real estate that is emerging from the ground in our regions. Just think of the warehouse that WDP built for Lactalis. It has solar panels, refrigeration systems without freon and is the first of its kind to have 100% LED lighting. There is also the building that Montea developed on behalf of Coca-Cola in Heppignies. This is the first distribution centre to be awarded the “Haute Qualité Environnementale” certificate, a standard for projects that are ecologically responsible, both on the basis of their design and in terms of management in daily practice. Two examples that clearly illustrate how producers – in this case Lactalis and Coca-Cola – are increasingly focusing on “sustainability”. A trend that should make the transporters/logistics service providers who work for them think…
Some of these transport operators are not lagging behind. Think of DPD, which, through a campaign with the working title “Total Zero”, guarantees that the parcels are transported in a CO2-neutral way. These examples show that there is no longer any doubt: sustainable development is growing in a… sustainable way into a competitive advantage in the transport sector.