Sustainability at Whistl

Want to learn more about how we reduce our environmental impact?

It's vital we act responsibly where the environment is concerned. We aim to minimise carbon emissions and energy, water and paper usage by providing adequate facilities and encouraging the right behaviour.

Customers

• We work in partnership with our customers to enable them to act in an environmentally friendly way, offering services and tools that effectively reduce their footprint on the planet. Customers also have the option to reduce carbon emissions relating to the distribution and delivery of their mailings.

Employees

• We seek to reduce unnecessary travel by employees, encouraging alternative means of commuting, such as car sharing, and reduce unnecessary travel by using remote conference calls.
• In 2020, as a result of Covid-19, we achieved a 66% reduction in company travel.

Our vehicles

• We have reduced our carbon emissions whilst continuing to operate as key workers, collecting and processing mail and parcels for delivery to consumers around the UK. We continually invest in our transport fleet to help reduce hydrocarbons. We use real-time data to avoid traffic delays and road closures minimising travel time. We operate double decker trailers to optimise our load capacity and reduce the number of vehicles on the road. 
• We have carried out successful trials of electric vans for our collections services and have identified routes where these will be suitable. Range is still an issue but is improving all the time and so we see electric vans as a solution at a number of depots. 
• In 2020 we placed an order with Connexas, to ensure that our fleet of 30 Bedford based vehicles which serve London are compliant with the Transport for London (TfL) Direct Vision Standard.

Our depots

• We reduce our environmental impact through setting targets, underpinned by improvements plans and performance measures.
• In 2019 we increased spend with an electricity provider to enable a zero-carbon source. As a result, in 2020, we achieved a 97% reduction in electricity usage across all our DSA sites.
• Our gas consumption in our DSA sites reduced as a result of an investment in newer and more efficient buildings. These buildings have more roof light and improved building management systems. We will continue to make these investments where lease events allow.
• We recycled a total of 460.81 tonnes in 2020, exceeding our targets. Waste created by our DSA business was reduced by 41% in comparison to the previous year. ​
• Ethical Superstore (part of the Whistl group) continually strive to use materials that safeguard products and are environmentally friendly. Packing material used include: paper bubble wrap alternative, unbleached kraft roll, paper packing tape, reused cartons and 100% recycled paper void fill. To reduce waste we also reuse supplier packaging in our orders where suitable.