11 December 2020

Mainfreight receives third Lean & Green Star

We are proud to announce that we have received our third Lean & Green Star in Europe. You don't get the Third Lean & Green Star just like that. In order to achieve the total CO2 reduction of 35%, measures must be taken that are related to one of the six influencing factors (for example, the energetic efficiency of the vehicle or driver or the logistics efficiency) that are important in the sustainability process. There are only eleven companies that currently have the Third Star and from now on we can count ourselves among those lucky ones.

“A justified recognition, because the company has taken a lot of action in recent years and has thus managed to achieve a very decent CO2 reduction. Mainfreight is highly committed to sustainability, safety, health and the environment. They have made this a fundamental part of their business operations. Something that clearly helped them achieve this valuable Star status”.

Making an organization more sustainable is sometimes not easy and takes time. In 2010 we entered the program full of enthusiasm. At the time, we started to optimize our vehicles and make our warehouses more sustainable. In addition, we have also actively searched for sustainable cooperation partners. By creating partnerships (with the right partners and the right approach) we strive to achieve sustainable long-term goals.



Sustainability as part of business operations
Making sustainability a permanent part of business operations cannot be achieved with temporary solutions. For example, we employ our own driver trainer with our own training truck and we continue to train drivers continuously in the new way of driving. In addition, we have trained a number of drivers to become LHV drivers and we are deploying four extra trucks that are LHV approved to save even more kilometers.

In addition to that, we started looking for new strategic locations. The use of these extra locations helps us to make even fewer empty kilometers. By deploying a new location in Enschede, we save about 190 kilometers per day. For that reason we are looking for more strategic locations, for example, towards Friesland and Noord-Holland.

About Lean & Green
As a leader within the Lean and Green program, we as Mainfreight have also been closely involved in drawing up the criteria for the Third Lean & Green Star. The starting point of Lean & Green is that front runners determine their sustainability ambitions together, and realize them together.
Mainfreight already received the First Star in 2012 and the Second Star in 2014.

Lean and Green is an incentive program for companies and governments that has been executed by Connekt from the start in 2008. It stimulates organizations to grow to a higher sustainability level by taking measures that not only yield cost savings, but at the same time reduce the environmental impact. Ultimately, Connekt wants to achieve five stars in the coming years - that means zero emissions, no more harmful emissions as a result of logistics activities.

Fourth Lean & Green Star
The Fourth Lean & Green Star is currently under development. Due to our ambitious nature and because we see sustainability as part of our policy, we have been asked - together with a number of other participants - to think about its development. Together towards sustainable logistics!