Pack less air with Active Ants e-fulfilment

No, online shops don’t sell air. But why do they pack so much air? Webshops in the United Kingdom send more than 14 million parcels a day. Active Ants UK contributes to this with some few thousands of packages a day. Unfortunately, online shops in the United Kingdom also send a lot of air, in addition to their goods. This is because the boxes are often a lot bigger than the article they are supposed to protect. And that has its drawbacks:

Parcel deliverers have to drive up and down more often, as fewer boxes fit in their vans;
Packages have to be padded with extra material to protect the goods and are vulnerable if not done properly;
This leaves consumers with a mountain of unnecessary waste;
Shipments become more expensive as more material is needed and delivery drivers have to drive more often.

Making e-fulfilment more sustainable

Active Ants puts its own house in order and, together with our online shops, wants to contribute to the greening of online shop logistics and the fulfilment sector. We do this under the name ‘Active Green’. Here, we are busy making our fulfilment centres and the e-fulfilment process more sustainable and automated. This way, we reduce our ecological footprint and make our processes more efficient.

Less packaging, less air

One of the ways we are trying to contribute to a greener future within e-fulfilment is to make parcel delivery more sustainable. For example, we operate special automatic packing machines. These machines cut and fold boxes to size per item to be shipped. This allows us to pack up to 40% less air and also eliminates the need for padding material. This reduces unnecessary waste and ensures that more of our packages can be transported at the same time. And so fewer transport vans are needed.

Our method of packing ensures that we pack 40% less air;
In addition, we print our shipping labels directly on the box, saving some 8 million labels a year in paper;
We are also working with our customers on the transition to digital packing slips. This will save the fulfilment process a huge number of A4 sheets of packing slips.
The paper and cardboard we do use is FSC certified.

Continuing to develop and green

Further greening our e-fulfilment process remains an important spearhead for our operations. So we keep looking for improvements in our own process, but also for greening and sustainability of the shipping process and that of the entire chain. Here you can think of:

Making our own e-fulfilment processes, shipping processes and the entire chain CO2 neutral;
Reducing paper and cardboard consumption even further. Digitising where possible and looking for greener packaging options;
Automation where possible to make our e-fulfilment processes, but also those of the chain, faster and more efficient.

Join the transition to sustainable e-fulfillment

Is a sustainable logistics and shipping process also important for your online shop? Then contact us and discover the sustainable e-fulfilment options Active Ants has to offer you. Or do you have good ideas to further ‘green’ the fulfilment process and the chain? Be sure to let us know. We are always open to good ideas.