Thinking outside the box to meet sustainability targets

Cleaning manufacturer and distributor Robert Scott has long stood at the forefront of innovation within the industry; and when it comes to its approach to sustainability, it embraces a ‘marginal gains’ philosophy. 
 
Here, Alastair Scott, sales director at Robert Scott, explains how meticulously scrutinising every aspect of the company’s operational footprint to identify opportunities for incremental improvements has led to some radical thinking around carbon reduction.
 
A journey of 1,000 steps
At Robert Scott, we have set ourselves an ambitious goal: to become a carbon-neutral company by 2045. We know that there’s no one single change that can get us there, it’s about making many smaller adjustments in how we operate and interact with the environment around us.
 
By dissecting each aspect of our business, from product manufacturing to logistics, we have initiated a range of carefully calculated adaptations that collectively contribute to a substantial reduction in our carbon footprint.
 
While much of our success to date has come from what might be deemed more traditional and ‘obvious’ steps – using more recycled plastic, reducing plastic content in our products, cutting back on packaging, for example – others have come from more surprising and innovative places.
 
These range from the energy sources we employ to the way we transport products and manage waste. Each provides valuable insights to support wider industry initiatives.
 
From A to B and back again
Heavy-duty vehicles are responsible for approximately a quarter of all CO2 emissions from road transport. We’ve therefore focused on ways we can reduce the number of miles our vehicles spend out on the road.
A key element in this strategy is ‘backhauling’, where a haulage vehicle carries out its deliveries as normal, but its return journey has been planned to ensure it either picks up items at the outbound destination or stops at companies needing to return stock or packaging on its way back. Either way, it never returns empty.


By reducing the total number of journeys required by haulage vehicles, backhauling not only maximises productivity but also produces a lower carbon footprint. In fact, we have introduced backhauling with two of our partners and have quantified that it equates to a saving of three full trucks a week. 
 
These are incredibly impressive results that simply required us to look at more efficient ways of moving goods across the country; backhauling is something that many companies can employ with sufficient planning and coordination.
 
Over land and sea
We are also experimenting with innovative approaches to reduce our reliance on road-based transport altogether. For example, we are piloting a scheme to reroute shipping closer to its destination, consequently reducing the role of road haulage in transporting goods and materials. 
 
This could make a significant impact, given that HGVs produce 137gCO2e per tonne-km, whereas maritime shipping produces just 7gCO2e per tonne-km. The difference is huge and obviously the more we can increase the sea-based leg of the journey, the better.
 
Shoring up the supply chain
Globally, there is a shift away from sourcing from low-cost countries towards locations that are closer to home, reducing uncertainty and disruptions while also creating new opportunities for local economies. This trend was fast tracked following the supply chain shocks of the past three years, with onshoring and nearshoring rising to the top of the agenda for many businesses. 
 
While there are many benefits – lower transportation expenses, reduced importing complexities and faster response times to name a few – the most pressing is increased sustainability. Put simply, reducing reliance on carbon-intense transport methods like air travel and being in closer proximity to end customers can considerably reduce a company’s environmental footprint.