Businesses are prioritizing sustainable supply chains—access our latest research

Big ideas and trends around supply chain management best practices

April 4, 2022

Business leaders are influencing sustainable supply chain management across their organization, and 72.5% of companies say they are able to be proactive with their sustainability efforts.

The message is clear: customer concerns around sustainability are louder than ever and businesses are under immense pressure to adapt to meet sustainable supply chain demands.

At Purolator, our focus is on empowering businesses to find smart and sustainable solutions that help your supply chain run smoothly. We’re excited to announce that we’ve released a new research study exploring how Canada and US consumer’s shipping and sustainability expectations have evolved since the pandemic. The paper also provides insights into how companies are implementing green initiatives throughout their supply chain. Additionally, in April we’ll be hosting a virtual sustainability event where we’ll be speaking with sustainability experts at IKEA and BGIS to learn how they’ve set and prioritized ambitious sustainability targets.

IKEA, BGIS and Purolator are prioritizing sustainability and setting ambitious targets—hear from leading experts at our upcoming virtual event.

As the pandemic catalyzed e-commerce shopping trends, the need for more flexible and faster delivery options became more urgent. When higher volumes and greater speeds are prioritized, sustainability often takes a back seat. These issues may show up in a lack of shipment consolidation, excessive packaging, inefficient delivery routes and unused truck space. In this complex consumer landscape, businesses are tasked with an immense challenge: finding the right balance between sustainable supply chains and the customer experience.

What is a sustainable supply chain?

Operating a business sustainably starts with being aware of your company’s environmental, social and economic impact at all stages of your supply chain. To go green, companies are taking specific actions to improve at every stage of their supply chain—from sourcing raw materials, to production, storage, delivery and every transportation link in between.

Why it matters: Consumer pressures to go green

Today’s consumers want more from a company than just their products. With a sustainable future in mind, they are putting pressures on businesses to re-examine and re-imagine their supply chains. According to our recent sustainability study, 55% of customers said they would support sustainability over speed when asked to choose one or the other.

Here are some key highlights from the report that demonstrate how customers are influencing sustainability:

How are leading companies responding to shifting consumer demands and investing in sustainability?

As consumers look to support businesses that align with their values, more and more companies are recognizing the importance of sustainability and creating concrete action plans to improve their supply chain logistics. Some of the top measures that businesses are implementing include reducing packaging, increasing the level of recycled materials, reducing energy consumption and increasing electric deliveries.   

Within the last four years, companies that have made sustainability a focus have increased their courier service budgets, reflecting their commitment to finding courier services that offer efficiencies in both an environmental and operational capacity. To learn how leading businesses like IKEA and BGIS have successfully gained internal buy-in to prioritize sustainability across their organization, join our virtual event.

We partnered with Canadian market research firm, Leger, and surveyed over 500 customers and shippers across Canada and the U.S. In the report, we’ve combined these results to show the overall trends in North America, to help provide a clear picture of sustainability insights business leaders need to know.

Our findings answer important questions about supply chains and customers’ expectations, such as:

What are businesses doing to create a more sustainable workplace—both generally and within  their shipping efforts?
What do customers really want from their shipping experiences?
How do Canada and U.S. sustainability efforts differ and compare?
Do customers’ shipping expectations conflict with sustainability efforts?

Join our virtual event, How to Enable Supply Chain Sustainability: Actionable Insights from Industry Experts on April 21, 2022 at 11 a.m. ET where we’ll be talking to a panel of industry experts from companies including IKEA and BGIS. Here you’ll discover actionable ways they’ve adapted their supply chains to be more environmentally sustainable and get up to-date on the most recent sustainability research from Leger, a top market research firm.