CHEP is the global leader in pallet and container pooling services serving many of the World’s largest companies.
CHEP issues, collects, conditions and reissues more than 300 million pallets and containers from a global network of service centres, helping manufacturers, retailers and growers transport their products to distributors and retailers. Combining superior technology, decades of experience and an unmatched asset base, CHEP handles pallet and container supply chain logistics for customers in the consumer goods, produce, meat, home improvement, beverage, raw materials, petro-chemical and automotive industries. It currently operates in more than 45 countries covering the USA, most of Central and South America, the whole of Europe and Scandinavia, Southern Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Australia and New Zealand.
Here in the UK and Ireland, CHEP is under the control of Managing Director, Michael Pooley. He says, “We are very well-known for the range of pallet and containerisation services that we offer. Perhaps what is not so well known is our continuous and growing emphasis on sustainability. In terms of our overall strategy, we work on three key principles – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. If you look at our equipment, in particular our pallets, the key is renewing assets rather than 1-way packaging. This
1-way packaging is not environmentally friendly, neither is it sustainable. Typically, many of these end up in landfill and yet they have been made from wood taken from forests. By using pooled pallets we have been able to reduce the amount of timber used by 16 million tons per year, thereby significantly reducing deforestation.”
Building upon this approach, CHEP continually emphasises the reuse of pallets. The CHEP design is very robust and built to a high standard with every effort being made to repair any damaged pallets to the original standard. CHEP has a comprehensive network of 18 service centres in the UK where pallets are repaired using timber taken from sustainable sources to either FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) or PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Fores Certification) standards. Wood for these pallets is secured from James Jones & Son in Scotland, a company that has woodlands in various parts of the country. The Company takes a very rigid and serious approach to both woodland and watercourse management.
Michael adds, “Our partners all take woodland management extremely seriously. They ensure that the woodland is kept in tiptop condition, that watercourses are carefully monitored for any pollution, that there is no soil erosion when trees are removed and that areas that have had trees removed are then replanted. We continuously monitor this work as we have Chain of Custody for all the timber that we use – both for new pallets and for repair work.”
CHEP also enforces sustainability in the manner in which they operate their pool of pallets. One way in which this is done is by the use of empty returning trailers. It has been estimated that around 30% of all trailers on the road at any one time are travelling empty. CHEP works with a number of its suppliers and monitors their transport so that they can re-use this empty space. In this way, CHEP is effectively taking empty trailers off the road, reducing its carbon footprint and, currently, the majority of its transport of pallets in the UK and Ireland is done in this way.
The transport of pallets is not simply a UK problem. It has been calculated that around 10 million more pallets come into the UK than are exported. This is a major problem, as the numbers of pallets needs to be balanced by sending empty pallets back to places such as Southern Europe so that they can be re-loaded with fresh produce. CHEP now sends about 20% of its pallets to the Continent by train and by boat. This has resulted in a reduction in CHEP’s carbon footprint by about 3,500 tons per year simply for those sent by rail. This has been achieved by working closely with CHEP’s suppliers and customers who are using trains to import their products and then CHEP buys the empty wagons to take the empty pallets back into Europe.
Michael says, “As a basis for our sustainability programme, we have set some challenging targets! We are aiming to reduce our carbon footprint by 20% over the five years from 2010 to 2015. As I have already indicated, a large proportion of this will come from our transport programme.”
“However, we are now looking to see how we can reduce the carbon footprint of all of our operating plants around the country. We naturally use a large amount of wood in our work. We installed a woodchip biofuel burner last year at our service centre in Hoddesdon. We take the damaged parts of used pallets undergoing repair, grind up the wood and then use it in the woodchip burner to generate enough electricity to meet the demand of the plant. In this way we are reducing the amount of energy that we buy in. We are planning to install two more of the burners this year at other sites.”
CHEP takes its role in society extremely seriously, being a large consumer of timber. For this reason, the Company partners with the National Forest. This is a scheme to recreate a huge forested area on land that has been the scene of both deep pit and open-cast mining for many years and which, as a result is largely deforested and badly scarred. The plan is to cover about 35% of this with trees – currently, in terms of existing plantations and existing trees and woodlands around 18%. Over the next three years, CHEP will be giving all of its staff two days off a year to go and plant trees as part of this nationwide project. The Company will take on an area of land and will provide the labour and the saplings to plant around 12,000 trees. This programme will begin in November 2011.
Michael concludes, “As I said at the beginning, as the leader in pallet and container pooling solutions, our goal is to improve overall supply chain efficiency and sustainability through our product and service offerings. To accomplish this goal of driving integrated business performance and environmental stewardship, sustainable development criteria will always be a core component in the design and execution of all products, services, and processes.
A commitment to continuous improvement and social accountability is expected of each and every CHEP employee as we work together with our customers and industry partners to drive supply chain efficiency and sustainability.”
For further information please telephone 0800 737475 or visit http://www.chep.com
