Transport

• The increase in flexible home delivery services and internet shopping is increasing the mileage of our fleet.
• Miles driven by the Partnership's fleet of commercial vehicles represent our second largest source of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions.

Target and performance

Our target is to aim for a reduction of 15 per cent in energy-related transport CO₂e emissions from store deliveries (relative to £m sales, compared to 2005/06 levels). In 2010/11 our emissions from transport (including exclusive third party distribution) was just under 73,000 tonnes; an improvement of 5.9 per cent per £million sales since 2005/06. 

View our transport data.

Key initiatives

Owning our own fleet means we have control over its environmental impact as we can decide which vehicles and engines to use and trial new technologies where appropriate. Our lorries all have aerodynamic features to improve fuel efficiency, and Waitrose refrigerated lorries have advanced cooling systems, which maximise chilling space and minimise damage to the environment. John Lewis now has over 130 load capacity-enhancing multi-deck trailers in use. Waitrose is also starting to use double decker trailers, both conventional ones and advanced multi-temperature versions for carrying fresh food. We'll increase the number of these multi-temperature double decker trailers this year. Increasing vehicle load to this extent can reduce the need to drive more than four million miles per year.

Exploring alternatives

We have implemented, or plan to implement, all appropriate best practice measures to reduce the amount of fuel we burn. However, we need to move beyond this and use fuels that create less net CO₂e than fossil fuels. For example, we are operating seven heavy vehicles on pure plant oil (PPO), and have ordered five electric urban delivery vehicles. In addition, we send three deliveries per week by train to Scotland which saves us 70 tonnes CO₂e in a year, that's 0.15 per cent of Waitrose total fuel CO₂e emissions.

We're also particularly interested in fuel made from waste. This year we're operating five home delivery vans and a light truck on bio-methane gas extracted from a landfill site. We have trialled a heavy vehicle operating on a mixture of bio-methane and diesel. We plan the extend these trials and expand their scope.

We're also continuously monitoring developments in other advanced biofuels, in particular those grown on marginal land in developing countries. These fuels are not yet ready for wide scale usage but appeal because of their potential to reduce carbon and provide employment and investment where it's most needed without displacing food production.

Efficient route planning

Computerised route planning helps our distribution teams to avoid unnecessary mileage, to load lorries more efficiently, and to make use of empty vehicles on return journeys. These days, it is fairly common to deliver to a shop and then 'back-haul': pick up stock from a nearby supplier on the way back to the depot, saving fuel and saving the supplier from having to use their own lorry. Waitrose also 'forward-hauls', where a supplier's lorry delivers Waitrose goods to a shop on its way back from a distribution centre. In 2010-11, over two million miles were saved by using back- and forward-hauling. At Aylesford RDC we have reduced deliveries per branch by 10 per cent for each of the last two years due to efficiency improvements.

Good driving

Good driving can cut fuel use significantly, as well as reducing accidents. All Partnership commercial drivers are required to take driving courses as appropriate, and are encouraged to join the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), which operates a national awards programme for safe driving. Our efforts to improve driver efficiency include the Driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) and in-cab telematics to help drivers and managers to assess driving styles and fuel efficiency. This alone could save 4.6 tonnes of CO₂ per vehicle every year – equivalent to 4 per cent. We plan to have telematics in most primary distribution vehicles by the end of 2011, and all of them by the end of 2012.

Food miles

'Food miles' is the distance food travels from where it is grown or raised to where it is bought by consumers. Waitrose recognises the importance of considering how what we eat affects the environment. However, there are benefits that come from importing food developing countries' economies rely on trade with developed countries, and the food we import contributes to the diversity of ethnic cuisines. Therefore any actions we take to reduce food miles need to be balanced with the positive social and economic benefits of international trade.

Waitrose champions British food and supports regional and local producers (www.waitrose.com). We are keen to promote 'transport optimisation': reducing food miles by ensuring lorries are well packed and avoiding unnecessary journeys and forward and backhauling where possible. It is important though that we fully consider the environmental impact of all options for growing and transporting our products.  For example, independent research has shown that growing flowers in Kenya, and flying them in to the UK, actually uses less energy than growing these flowers in glasshouses in the Europe and transporting them by road into the UK.