New cardboard box: Ahlsell saves over 170 tons of CO2 by sending less air to customers

By introducing a new half-pallet box in Ahlsell's inventory management system, the company saves money and reduces CO2 emissions. At the same time, customers experience that there is less air in the packages when they receive their goods.

"At Ahlsell, we incorporate sustainability into everything we do, and we are constantly looking for new green initiatives. Therefore, it’s great that we can make a rather simple improvement in our logistics center that has such a significant impact," says Sine Solhøj Hansen, the operations manager at Ahlsell's large logistics center in Billund.

The employees are assisted by the logistics center's warehouse management system to select the exact size of the box that fits the products.

"We have two sizes of the largest box types, namely boxes on full pallets and on half pallets. Until now, it has been up to the employees to choose, and it can be difficult to assess how much a large order of goods takes up. Often, employees have chosen the large full pallet box, even though the products could actually fit in a half pallet box. This has meant that we have sent unnecessarily large boxes to our customers," says Sine Solhøj Hansen.

Saves 170 tons of CO2 and 17 trucks per year

Therefore, earlier this year, an improvement in the work process was developed and implemented so that the inventory management system now also selects the correct pallet box for large orders. The process optimization was completed in March, and it has already had a significant positive effect.

“We have significantly reduced our consumption of pallets and cardboard since we started helping employees choose the right size box. More than one in three boxes on helpallet has now been replaced with a half pallet box, and this reduced packaging consumption means we are saving quite a bit of CO2,” says Sine Solhøj Hansen.

In the past 40 days, as many as 1,400 helpallets have been replaced by half pallets with correspondingly smaller cardboard boxes. This results in an estimated annual saving of nearly 170 tons of CO2 solely due to the lower consumption of pallets and cardboard in Ahlsell's logistics center.

Additionally, there is also a significant CO2 saving in the distribution of goods, as more boxes can now fit in the trucks. An annual saving of more than 1,600 cubic meters of air corresponds to approximately 17 trucks per year that can be saved, which is also good for the environment.

It is also advantageous for customers that they receive a smaller amount of packaging.

Complex to optimize internal workflows

Ahlsell is actively working to reduce the company's climate footprint and has a stated goal of achieving net-zero operations by 2030. Therefore, Ahlsell's sustainability manager, Gitte Østergaard Futtrup, is excited about the logistics center's new green initiatives.

“Although it may sound simple, optimizing internal workflows to benefit both the environment and our customers is quite complex. Our colleagues in the logistics center have done an excellent job. They are also testing and exploring alternative packaging types in these weeks. We are focusing on packaging where many small adjustments in our packaging composition, such as replacing polystyrene filler with biodegradable corn filler, also contribute to reducing our climate footprint,” she says.

In the past two years, Ahlsell has reduced its CO2 emissions by one-third, and according to the sustainability manager, it is largely due to a targeted effort among employees that the company can meet its high climate ambitions.

“It is our employees who know best the processes that can be optimized, and fortunately, we have many colleagues in our organization who are deeply committed to the green transition,” says Gitte Østergaard Futtrup.

Contact person:

Gitte Østergaard Futtrup, Head of Sustainability: 25 65 50 62

June 15, 2023