CHEP, part of Brambles, becomes a carbon neutral operations company

CHEP, part of Brambles, the global supply chain solutions company operating in 60 countries, is pleased to announce that it has become carbon neutral in all its own operations, including its operations in Romania.

The company’s net CO₂ emissions have been brought down to zero across the scope 1 (direct emissions generated from the burning of fuel) and scope 2 (indirect emissions resulting from the production of electricity that is purchased) of the standardised Greenhouse gas (GHG) Protocol. Becoming carbon neutral in scopes 1 and 2 is the first step towards the ambitious and more challenging decarbonisation of Brambles’ entire supply chain, which would involve also the emissions generated by subcontractors’ operations (scope 3). To do so, the company will set a science-based Target for emissions in its direct control and in its supply chain.

This achievement comes after Brambles announced, in September 2020, the successful completion of its five-year sustainability programme and the launch of an even more ambitious one for 2020-2025, aimed at pioneering regenerative supply chains. This new programme includes the Group’s commitment to a 1.5°C degree climate future aligned with the Paris Agreement and the previously mentioned science-based carbon emissions target.

“I could not be prouder of this milestone”, Brambles’ CEO, Graham Chipchase, says. “But the work does not stop here. The real challenge lies ahead of us in advocating for our customers and suppliers to become carbon neutral in their operations too. We will extend and build new partnerships with them to leverage the circular economy and the best available low and zero-carbon products and services to decarbonise our entire supply chain.”

The FMCG and Retail sectors are supporting Romania’s transition to an efficient climate-neutral economy

With over 400 companies from Romanian FMCG and Retail collaborating with CHEP in their product distribution, the sectors have generated in 2020 total savings of 6.984.447 cubic dm of wood (6.750 mature trees), 8.116.716 kg CO2 (greenhouse emissions equivalent for a truck travel of 7.412.526 km in the linear system) and avoided 670.583 kg of waste in the supply chain . The biggest contributors to these results are the beverages, groceries, paper packaging, fresh meat and Fruits&Vegetables sectors.

“The contribution of the companies we collaborate with is very important, however the two sectors still depend to a large extent on linear supply chain practices that generate huge financial losses, natural resource consumption, waste and emissions implicitly,” said Gabriel Ivan, Country General Manager CHEP Romania. „Companies will need to adapt their business to a low carbon world because sustainability in practice equals efficiency across all the business segments and resilience to the challenges of the new normality.”

In CHEP’s circular system, companies are renting the reusable pallets they need to ship their products to the modern trade, and the logistics supplier collects them from the market after unloading the goods, after which it inspects and reconditions the pallets before reintroducing them in the supply chain. The circular logistics solutions reduce pollution on the freight transport routes, enable the supply chain decoupling from the use of natural resources and do not generate pressure on forests, nor wood waste.