It’s been almost six months since our fair trade, organic, benefit, red and yellow social enterprise started getting support from Brown... the world’s largest package delivery company. United Parcel Service (UPS) has a little less than 450,000 employees worldwide. We have around 4… depending on the day of the week. In 2015, they had revenues of 48.9 billion. We had… a lot less.
Thanks to an award from Startup Canada, UPS Canada offered to ramp up business for our little Canadian startup. We try to be as creative as we can when it comes to marketing and selling tropical forest honey on behalf of 10,000 African beekeepers. When you need to market a product that comes from a location with no electricity, phones or roads… you need creativity…. lots of it… and UPS has been delivering it every day.
The first thing we told them is that there aren’t any roads in that forest. That didn’t faze them. They said, “If we can’t get a truck into the forest we can do something else that’s pretty neat or bring it to us and we’ll deliver every bottle of your honey, almost anywhere in the world and do it ‘carbon neutral’. We can also show you how to package better, label better, ship cheaper and save you hassles and money.” And they did. It’s transforming us.
UPS is a very smart company. They did something totally awesome a few years ago when they implemented route optimization technology to ensure their delivery vehicles avoid making left turns. (Waiting at those left turn lights burns fuel). They reroute their trucks to make as many right turns as possible saving a lot of fuel and reducing carbon emissions. Now that’s good business and good for the planet. They also have one of the largest fleets of hybrid and alternate fuels vehicles going. Moves like that helped them earn the SmartWay Excellence Award from the EPA, which recognizes outstanding environmental performance and leadership. Four times! They will also offer to ship packages, around the world, with a carbon neutral option. It’s a nominal amount per package… and all of our customers love it!
Just imagine a global company that could still fulfill its obligations to stakeholders to be profitable, while making the world a better place! What if ‘doing good’ made for more reliable, predictable and sustainable profit with reliable growth? What if ‘doing good’ actually made for better companies, with an engaged workforce and satisfied customers? Well, “what if” is already happening.
Thanks Brown for delivering the goods… carbon neutral.
Bee the Change!
