Portuguese retailer Pingo Doce has joined the Lean & Green initiative in order to reduce its environmental impact.
The retailer has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by at least 20% within five years, in its logistic operations.
Efforts to reduce CO2 emissions will be mainly focussed at the distribution chain level, that is, the route taken by the products to the supermarket shelves, the retailer added.
Eco-Friendly Initiatives
Pingo Doce has already invested in a fleet that consumes more efficiently, emits less CO2 and is quieter, reducing the consumption of energy resources, the emission of atmospheric pollutants and noise pollution.
Other measures implemented by the retailer include circular transport operation, ensuring that the vehicles make their return journeys to the warehouses with products collected from suppliers' factories, and investment in photovoltaic panels for electricity for in-house requirements.
With these measures, in 2020 alone, the retailer saved 13 million kilometres of transport and reduced carbon emissions by more than 11.5 thousand tonnes.
'Sustainable Practices'
According to Isabel Ferreira Pinto, general manager of Pingo Doce, the decision to join Lean & Green further reinforces the retailer’s initiatives to adopt and promote more sustainable practices throughout the value chain: from production to distribution and consumption.
Lean & Green is one of Europe's largest collaborative platforms specifically aimed at reducing CO2 emissions associated with the supply chain, encouraging companies to achieve a higher level of sustainability within logistics.
It is currently present in 13 countries, with more than 600 companies as signatories, and has already enabled the reduction of 2.5 megatonnes of CO2.
At a national level, Lean & Green is represented by GS1 Portugal, a private, non-profit, neutral and multi-sectorial association, with around 9,000 associated companies.
GS1 Portugal is the organisation responsible for the introduction of barcodes in Portuguese territory and in the Portuguese-speaking African countries.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Branislav Pekic. For more Supply Chain news click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
