The business, headquartered in Birmingham and with a distribution and logistics centre in Aylesbury, focusses on supply chain solutions for palletised freight distribution, haulage, warehousing and fulfilment.
The company has a team of more than 120 people and a fleet of 60 owned vehicles covering all key industrial regions within the UK mainland. The business handles over 300,000 shipments per annum through its shareholding in Pallet-Track, and its own haulage and distribution fleet.
For the past five years Mobile PPL says it has been operating under the ISO14001 environment management framework, which has dictated decision making on everything from machinery and equipment to warehousing and administration, to reduce emissions and stay within the criteria.
The company writes that it first started its journey to carbon neutrality in 2022 by understanding customer expectations and framing that against internal ambitions and motivations. The process was completed at the end of March 2023 through its partnership with Carbon Neutral Britain, a UK offsetting programme. This, it is said, allows Mobile PPL to offset its environmental impact by investing in projects to remove Carbon Dioxide and Greenhouse Gases from the atmosphere.
In addition, Mobile PPL has stated its ambition to become a Zero Emissions business by 2037 – noting that current technology does not allow any national haulage and distribution business to be Zero Emissions.
The road transport operator also announced the following pledges:
- To report annual emissions data to show progress and areas for improvement.
- To dedicate time and resource to researching sustainable technologies and update its procurement process to make sustainability one of its key purchase motivators.
- To lead the sector in being open and transparent about the environmental challenges the industry faces, and encourage its suppliers, partners and peers to join them.
Commenting on the announcement, Mobile PPL Managing Director Matthew Marriott, said:
“Transparency has always been a key component of the Mobile Genetics, as has a commitment to supporting the communities within which we operate through employment opportunities, charitable initiatives and sponsorship of local sports teams. The process of becoming Carbon Neutral has been a challenge, given the margins that we operate at, however we felt it was important to make a stance and let our actions do the talking. We wanted to fund this ourselves, not by dressing it up as a ‘green tax’ passed onto clients, in the hope that our position on this issue will motivate and inspire others to join us.”
Mobile PPL Business Director, Ian Jolly, added:
“We have always felt that we can and should have a demonstrable impact on the environment and that this is our moral responsibility as a business that, by its nature, generates a large carbon footprint. We’re very pleased to have been certified, however the real journey starts now. Our commitment to the Mobile PPL Environment Pledge feels like a pivotal moment for the company as we show how serious we are about taking action and leading the sector in doing so. We’re an independent, family-run business, without shareholders to appease, and this has allowed us to take a bet on this initiative and go with our gut instinct.”