Environmental sustainability has become an important guiding principle for today’s forward-thinking businesses. At USA, we believe your fulfillment company should take environmental stewardship to heart. Advocacy and “talking the talk” are a good start, but what about their day-to-day operations?
Do they put their words into action?
As you are evaluating each prospective fulfillment company partner (or your existing relationship, for that matter), ask if they:
An environmentally friendly fulfillment company does all those things. For example, here at USA we belong to the Maryland Green Registry. Whenever possible, our purchasing folks source sustainable options. We recycle between 85% and 90% of our waste, and we’re constantly on the lookout for additional recycling opportunities.
And we have systematically re-fitted our facilities, installing energy efficient heating and cooling systems that have reduced our energy usage and costs by 20%. That not only helps support our environment, lower operating costs are good news for our clients, too.
Being an environmentally-friendly fulfillment company can be time-consuming, working to uncover opportunities to reduce environmental impact. It takes time to monitor results. Other fulfillment companies may see these efforts as unnecessary distractions. But we do them because we think they matter. It’s part of our all-encompassing commitment to our people and our communities. You might say it’s in our DNA, driving everything we do.
In 2004, USA’s founder, Shirley Moore, created something called the Windsor Foundation. This non-profit organization has steadily grown, now supporting more than 30 missionaries here in the US and around the world. We couldn’t be more proud.
Should you expect your fulfillment company to have their own foundation? Of course not. But you should expect them to be state-of-the-art in every way. That includes taking positive steps to be a good member of their community and a good environmental neighbor.
It’s not only the right thing to do, it benefits your company as their partner. By association, you are indirectly doing more to help the world around us. And that reinforces your brand image with customers.
See how your current fulfillment company (or in-house services) stack up against Best Practices.
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