The firm was praised for its ability to adapt during the pandemic whilst continuing its sustainability mission. DPD UK has been a sector leader on fleet electrification with over 1,500 electric vehicles on the road in the UK every day and incorporated a whole raft of changes into its operation to make it as sustainable as possible.
Initiatives range from the pledge to deliver clean and green to 30 of the largest towns and cities in the UK by 2023 to changing DPD parcel bags to 80% reclaimed material and 100% recyclable. DPD UK has also created an Eco Fund to support community-based sustainable projects funded solely by the firm’s initiatives, including recycling all plastic shrink wrap used throughout the operation to create new shrink wrap and the recycling of wooden pallets.
DPD UK received the award at a special ceremony at Canary Wharf, London, hosted by BBC TV news presenter Huw Edwards.
The awards evening was a carbon neutral event, while the awards process carbon footprint was kept to a minimum with the judges’ presentation days held online via Zoom. To honour Her Majesty’s Jubilee campaign to plant more trees in 2022, each winner will have ten trees planted in its geographical region within the UK.
Elaine Kerr, CEO at DPD UK, comments:
“This award is fantastic recognition for our people and our sustainability journey so far. We have challenged ourselves to be greener and more sustainable at every level and to create a truly joined-up strategy that goes way beyond simply buying electric vehicles. It includes an initiative to monitor air quality in five major cities and a four-year partnership with Forestry England. I’m incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made and the transformative impact it is making, not only on our operation but on the environment.”
About DPD UK
DPD UK was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2015 in the Innovation category, for its unique one-hour delivery service, Predict.
In 2018, DPD opened the UK’s first all-electric parcel delivery depot in Westminster. DPD UK currently has over 1,500 EVs on the road in the UK and in October 2020, announced plans to deliver to 25 of the largest towns and cities in the UK with zero and low-emission delivery means. In July 2021, Oxford became DPD’s first all-electric city in the UK. Details of all of DPD’s sustainability initiatives can be found on its dedicated green website: https://green.dpd.co.uk/
DPD UK is a member of DPDgroup, the largest parcel delivery network in Europe. DPDgroup is the parcel delivery network of GeoPost, a holding company owned by France’s La Poste.
The company operates more than 10,000 vehicles from 84 locations and delivers over 400 million parcels a year.
