Building better customer experiences through green partnerships

Unipart Logistics’ relationship with Vodafone spans an incredible 24 years , and our work with them was recently recognised via nominations at the Supply Chain Excellence Awards 2023. We spoke to Simon Leggott, Customer Engagement Director, and Andrew Meston, Customer Insight Analyst, who support the UL Vodafone contract, about some of the improvements the teams have been implementing through the partnership.

By understanding the real and perceived needs of our customers and serving them better than anyone else, we can help our customers reach their own sustainability aims, whilst also working towards our own Race to Zero goals.

Speaking about the nominations for our partnership with Vodafone at one of the industry’s most prestigious events, in three different environmental-focused categories, Andrew Meston said:

“The Head of Logistics at Vodafone had wanted to put the partnership forward for the awards in the past, but this year we felt like we were a strong contender. We have had lot of wins for sustainability in the last 18 months as we have worked towards Unipart's target to be net zero by 2040."

Simon Leggott shares more about some of these projects and on delivering the customer promise, not only to Vodafone but to the end user:

“Prior to the pandemic, most of the shipments we processed went out in packaging with some level of plastic in it, which we wanted to reduce.

Mobile handsets started to get much more expensive, and were being delivered to the consumer in a plastic packaging bag, which wasn't a very good user experience, or good for the environment. Also, without the proper packaging protection, the box the handset was in was more likely to get damaged in transit, which could lead to customer complaints for Vodafone.

We stopped using the plastic packaging bags in Summer 2020, and moved to cardboard packaging . Since that point, we’ve really worked hard to remove plastic from our processes.

We are now trying to eliminate our final single use plastic, shrink wrap from the supply chain and replace it with something that is better for the environment, but is still as durable. Whilst we look for alternatives, where we can, if we have a pallet that comes wrapped in plastic, we’ll send it back out in the same shrink wrap.”

Reflecting on the entry into the awards, Andrew said:

“We're proud that we presented multiple environmental processes and procedures across multiple areas of the business, which once added all up, made a big impact to the whole customer proposition. ”

We are also continuously improving are cardboard packaging, and now use an extra slim box which acts like a cardboard wrapper, that the label goes on.

Inside the package, we removed the delivery note that used to go into the majority of consumer orders, taking unnecessary paper out at the supply chain.

Sim card packaging has also been reviewed and reduced. As well as using recycled plastic, it is now half the size as it was previously, which saves nearly two thousand tonnes of CO2 per annum. New contracts going forward will be e-sim by default, unless a physical sim card is requested, which will see a significant further reduction in plastic usage.”

Reducing our impact on the environment also requires us to look at how our operations work, as Andrew shares:

“There's been work put into how we can improve our environmental credentials within the Unipart buildings. Nuneaton, where the Vodafone operations are based, has been zero waste to landfill since 2016, is powered by renewable sources and there's new projects on the horizon too. There's an Eco Garden being designed and we have recently installed water butts, utilised Eco Insights to identify areas for improved energy consumption and had a fast action bay door installed to help reduce energy wastage.”

The drive for a more sustainable future is also being written into our contracts, on which Simon says:

“In the recent contract renewal we have with Vodafone, we've got environmental KPIs, which we wouldn't have had 10 years ago. We're seeing the level of importance increase.”

Also up for an award at this year's Supply Chain Excellence Award was Hamandeep Kaur, who was a winner in her category. Read more about her win and career journey here.