BALL Beverage Packaging EMEA has revealed that a partnership with Woodland Group has enabled Ball to benefit from an 82% reduction of emissions for its inbound supply chain to the UK via the main deep seaports between March 2021 and September 2022.
Ball, a producer of recyclable aluminium beverage cans, has a facility in Doncaster located next to the iPort rail hub. Woodland Group initiated a new rail route for Ball within the transport chain, achieving ‘substantial’ carbon reduction savings.
Woodland Group’s rail initiative is said to have allowed the company to reduce Ball’s inland carbon footprint by 886 tonnes of carbon across 1,442 FEU’s (forty-foot equivalent containers) or 4.35 times less than if all the containers travelled by road.
The firm also installed motion sensing and lux-level detection LED lighting at Ball’s Doncaster site, delivering a 70% reduction in cost and energy consumption. The light fittings are limited to deliver 90% of maximum brightness.
Ball revealed that, in 2021, it managed to use 100% renewable energy for its beverage packaging business operations in Europe. The business is seeking to increase recycled content in aluminium cans to 85% by 2030.
Woodland Group and Ball forged a partnership in February 2021, seeking to ‘pioneer’ carbon-conscious supply chain projects and encourage the development of solutions that will drive down emissions across the fulfilment value chain.
Woodland Group used its carbon calculator tool to deliver intermodal transport chain emissions reports across timelines, enabling the two companies to identify where they could achieve reductions.
Jack Harrison, logistics development manager for Ball Beverage Packaging EMEA, said, “We are actively finding ways to reduce our carbon footprint by moving to intermodal solutions and alternative fuels across EMEA. This is a great step forward to ensure our supply chain offers a competitive advantage to our customer base by offering a smarter and greener supply chain. This is credit to our partnership with Woodland Group and we look forward to future initiatives that can deliver even greater value.”
Luke Fermor, head of fulfilment for Woodland Group, added, “Having the opportunity to work closely with Ball Beverage Packaging on driving carbon conscious initiatives through the supply chain has been a vital component to our partnership. Achieving 82% reduction on emissions on inland freight so far as a result is credit to our collective teams’ commitment, innovative thinking, and collaborative approach, and we’re excited to build on this further.
“Working with clients like Ball is a real pleasure and seeing shared vision and sustainability objectives create tangible change is incredibly encouraging for us and our industry’s future. Together we are already looking at new objectives for future development of carbon-conscious solutions that create opportunity and deliver sustainable supply chains.”
