10 Essential Eco-Friendly Shipping Tips for Sustainable Delivery Businesses [2024Guide]

Delivery methods and the supply chain ecosystem are responsible for over 90% of the impact made on the environment.

The methods of packaging a product and the delivery process used by fulfillment companies are significantly non-environmentally friendly and are causing havoc in nature.

The need for eco-friendly shipping and delivery is immense, and businesses must slowly adapt to environmentally friendly methods to complete the delivery process.

Becoming self-reliant for the delivery process and integrating eco-friendly delivery methods can help you take the initial steps towards minimizing the damage caused to the environment because of the existing delivery ecosystem.

Let’s understand how you can transform into an eco-friendly shipping and delivery process.

What is Eco-Friendly Shipping?

Eco-friendly shipping means using biodegradable materials for shipping and packaging products that can be recycled and decomposed easily. 

It also refers to using low carbon-emitting methods for shipment, consolidating orders into single shipments, and adapting to different powerful ways of reducing the impact of delivery packages on the environment.

Showcasing your concern for nature’s health and adapting to sustainable packaging can help you stand out and build trust among your customers. 

Why is Eco-Friendly Shipping Needed? 

Different reasons can be highlighted for switching to eco-friendly packaging and shipping. We have filtered a few major transformational reasons.

The Impact of Shipping on the Environment

The speed, convenience, and ubiquity entice customers to switch towards online shopping and help scale the industry’s demand. But the dark aspect of eCommerce creates a negative impact on the planet with the increase in sales.

A recent study highlights that Amazon emits equal carbon dioxide compared to a small country. Also, over one-third of the solid waste in the United States comes from eCommerce packaging, and the number is increasing exponentially.

Additionally,

• On average, 165 billion packages are shipped annually. The cardboard used equals the 1 billion trees. Moreover, many delivery businesses use plastic as an alternative to cardboard, even worse than using cardboard.

• The soot or black carbon is produced by freight ships because of the burning of heavy fuel oil and is a major driver of the negative environmental impact. 21% of the black carbon emissions are caused by diesel, coal, and biomass fuels used in the shipment process.

• The global eCommerce sales have resulted in 7,500,000 extra plastic bags. It takes over 50-500 years for plastics to decompose, depending on the structure and material type. 

• Last-mile delivery is the major source of greenhouse gas emissions and great local air pollution that can negatively impact nature.

• With changing eCommerce industry demands, return delivery services are becoming important for businesses, causing negative environmental impact and degrading the air quality.

But now, with more awareness and better alternatives available in the industry, eCommerce and delivery businesses need to switch towards eco-friendly packaging.

It’s Time For a Change

You must take a stance toward a sustainable delivery process that can minimize the carbon footprint and help you reduce packaging waste. 

Change your business model of your eCommerce and delivery processing and connect with modern customers with a positive brand image.

Use biodegradable packaging materials to help minimize the impact of shipping boxes and delivery processing.

Many eCommerce businesses think adapting to eco-friendly ways can be costly and impact the quality of their delivery process, resulting in customer churn.

That’s not the reality.

According to a survey, 92% of customers are likely to trust a company that focuses on environmental issues. 

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

87% of online shoppers have a more positive image of the eCommerce brand that supports different environmental issues.

As a responsible business owner, you should adopt an eco-friendly packaging solution that can lower the carbon footprint and positively impact the environment.

We have filtered the best eco-friendly delivery and shipping strategies you can use to aid your business transition that can contribute to the better health of the world we live in.

10 Eco-Friendly Shipping & Delivery Strategies

1. Eco-friendly packaging

Quality packaging is important to get orders delivered securely and prevent damaged goods. Using bubble wrap or plastic bags is the traditional packaging method followed by different eCommerce and delivery companies, but it contributes immensely to the overall retail packaging waste.

Choosing eco-friendly packaging materials like compostable packaging can help you remove the dependency on plastic packaging and retain the shipment’s quality. Adapt smarter and sustainable choices for better packaging and a better future.

Minimize the carb emissions by adapting to biodegradable packing peanuts and compostable mailer bags. You can use eco-friendly materials like boxes, mailers, and other supplies to reduce the environmental impact.

Many eCommerce and delivery businesses have made sustainable decisions by using recyclable aluminum packaging that helps them deliver an excellent customer experience and ensure that the products are secure.

2. Carbon offsetting

It’s important to minimize the harmful effects of carbon-emitting activities and reduce future carbon emissions.

It’s difficult for businesses to cut out carbon emissions activities and achieve greener shipping results within a short time. Using carbon offsetting, you can minimize the effects and contribute to a more sustainable future.

You must calculate monthly shipping emissions and focus on optimizing your shipping process to be carbon-neutral.

You can also outsource the custom packaging solutions to a professional company that can provide your sustainable alternatives to the traditional plastic, cardboard, or bubble wrap packing.

3. Minimize the packaging size

You must ensure that the shipping materials are packaged efficiently, and the size of the shipping box is reduced to its optimized form.

Minimizing the shipment’s dimensional size can help you lower the packaging costs and reduce waste. 

Don’t try to package the small items in a large box that can create a harmful impact on the environment and increase your packaging costs.

Customers can quickly notice the choice of your packaging and can make future buying decisions based on the analysis.

4. Polished return policy

Offer a sustainable return policy that can help you minimize the carbon footprint and create a beneficial returns program that is a win-win situation for you and your clients.

You can implement different strategies to minimize the need for new packaging for the new product. 

You can tie up with different brands that can assist you in implementing a powerful return system and adapt to a sustainable process that reduces negative environmental impact.

5. Use compostable mailers

Investing in compostable mailers is a powerful alternative to plastic mailer bags and helps you take a big step towards a more sustainable eCommerce business.

You can use the company’s branding on the compostable mailers to create a positive brand image and help you deliver an excellent customer experience.

You can reduce plastic waste and use reliable packaging materials to ship your products to the destination safely.

6. More ground shipping

Most eco-friendly packaging and shipping happen when you rely on ground shipping and do not use expedited air shipping.

You can follow a data-driven approach and create different fulfillment centers near your customers to help minimize shipping time and effort. 

You can rely on more affordable and environmentally friendly ground shipping to deliver a quality customer experience and help you improve the environment.

7. Avoid outer boxing

Focus on reducing the packaging used for green shipping integration that can help you minimize the overall packing material.

Avoiding brown boxes and delivering the products in their actual packaging can help you avoid the negative impact on the environment and ensure that you rely on eco-friendly packaging options.

Ships in Own Container (SIOC) technique is an effective eco-friendly process of product packaging, which delivers the ordered product in its original packaging, with no additional over-box requirements.

Using the sustainable packaging option, you can lower packaging costs and deliver a quality experience to your customers. 

8. Reuse and recycle of packaging

Ask your customers to reuse the eco-friendly packaging provided by your brand. You must ensure that you use recyclable materials for the product or food packaging and give your eCommerce company an edge over others.

Provide clear instructions to your customers that can help you promote the reusability of your packaging materials and assist the customers in solving different issues.

Create an eco-friendly ecosystem in your business that strengthens your position in the industry and separates your brand from other traditional businesses.

9. Distribute your inventory 

You can store inventory in different regions to minimize the order fulfillment time and ensure a minimal carbon footprint.

You must ensure that you deliver packages in the shortest possible distance, which cuts the long routes and simplifies your shipping process.

It can tailor your inventory based on the demand of the region, can enhance your productivity, and reduce product wastage or damage.

Better inventory management can help you increase your business efficiency and achieve your desired business outcomes.

10. Use powerful modern software

You can use professional delivery management software that can help you minimize the delivery time, increase efficiency, and lower the carbon footprint of vehicles.

Also, switch to more eco-friendly vehicle options like electric or CNG that can help you minimize the use of petrol, diesel, and other biogas fuels.

You can control the delivery of operational costs and adapt to nature-friendly delivery services. Following the shortest and optimized delivery routes, the delivery drivers can operate at maximum efficiency and deliver quality results.

You can lower the carbon footprint and ensure that you take serious steps towards sustainable delivery processing.

There are multiple delivery route planning and optimization software that you choose for your delivery operations, but the filtration process can be overwhelming, so we have selected the best for your business.

Upper Route Planner Got You Covered

Upper Route Planner is a quality route planning and optimization software that can streamline your delivery operations and ensure that you minimize the use of fuels and carbon emissions.

You get centralized control over the delivery operations and can track the real-time location of your delivery fleet.

The shipping route scheduling software also offers delivery scheduling, dispatching, and reporting features for managing deliveries for multiple routes within a few clicks.

It can create a flawless communication channel between the management and the delivery fleet for managing your multiple-stop routing with finesse.

Try the 7 days trial to experience the best routing software and transform towards eco-friendly delivery processing.

Takeaways

The supply chain and delivery industry are the biggest contributors to harmful environmental impacts such as air pollution, climate change, ozone layer depletion, and other effects.

Being a part of the industry, you can drive the change by adapting to eco-friendly ways of delivering products and contributing to improving the environment.

Using Upper, you can transform towards eco-friendly delivery processing by following the shortest and optimized paths that require less fuel and reduces the overall carbon emission.

Avail the 7 days trial period and transform delivery segment operations for a better tomorrow.