Ideas for Sustainable Storage and Warehousing

Sustainable storage and warehousing are at the top of the agenda for many businesses. The pandemic has created a sea-change in the way we now conduct business. And when you consider the encroaching threat of climate change, it’s hardly surprising.

Creating a planet-friendly warehouse

Companies starting out from scratch with a limitless budget will find plenty of options for creating sustainable storage within a warehouse environment. These days there are so many processes that can be automated, it’s not always necessary to have staff working round the clock. Many modern machines have been designed to use less power, enabling automated warehouses to trim running costs quite considerably.

If you’re building a warehouse from scratch, the use of building materials, overall layout and even the weather can all impact on your future running costs. Where budgets aren’t constrained, automated vehicles and robots maximise available space by removing the need for operatives. RFID radio frequency technology can help to reduce the use of paper without compromising warehousing processes. And automation limits the need for labour-intensive manual processes, helping to trim costs even further.

Future proofing your current warehouse

Building a new warehouse from scratch isn’t an option for the majority of businesses, but there are still plenty of ways to make your storage more sustainable. Switching to green energy providers and making optimum use of available space are just two ways of limiting your environmental impact. Many warehouse managers find that even something as simple as switching to LED lightbulbs can have a profound effect on costs and energy saving.

Tackling waste is particularly important for any business hoping to become greener. Recycling packaging material is just one of the ways that warehouse managers are helping the planet. Plastic baling machines and cardboard perforators help to generate new forms of packaging, making them both cost effective and sustainable too.

Choose the right business partners

It’s not enough simply to do your bit towards creating more sustainable storage solutions. You also need to partner up with companies who share your goals and adhere to the same high principles. This is something to consider when deciding how much money and space to allocate for storage, as there are dramatic savings to be made.

For example, do you even need such a big warehouse at all? As global supply chains adapt to fit emerging trends, there’s a move towards more of a Just in Time approach to spare parts in particular. Rather than spending money storing items in a warehouse, a Just In Time delivery service gets all your necessary parts delivered directly into your field service engineers’ vehicles before they even start work.

Businesses need to reassess their environmental impact more than ever due to the threat of climate change. GenRev’s Just In Time service is a greener way to store and supply parts and products to both field engineers and customers.

Reduce the need for warehousing storage by using our Just In Time distribution services. Contact us to find out more.