Wincanton has won a contract with sofa.com to provide a two-person home delivery service for the UK omnichannel furniture retailer.
sofa.com will join Wincanton’s UK two-person home delivery network to fulfil over 20,000 deliveries per year to customers’ homes. Operating from Wincanton’s network hubs in Harlow and Sheffield, the service includes delivery to room of choice and removal and recycling of packaging to homes across the UK, including to challenging delivery locations.
As part of Wincanton’s net-zero operations by 2040 target, the new sofa.com operation will be part of the net-zero two-person home delivery operation.
The homeware sector has a poor record with sustainability, with its manufacturing processes being energy and raw material intensive, according to the RetailX Europe Homeware report.
As homeware become more of a fashion item, it also contributes a disproportionate amount of waste to landfill, with a study pointing to some 25% of landfill waste coming from the sector.
As the sector adopts a more fashion-driven mindset, there could be a drift towards more rapidly made, cheaper to buy and more readily replaced homeware items that is exacerbating the problem of waste. With consumers torn between wanting to live more sustainably and having to survive on less disposable income, the problem remains.
This also impacts delivery, with 60.2% wanting to see their homeware goods being transported – both to market and to their front door – in more sustainable ways, Many are even prepared to pay a premium to do so.
Environmentally friendly production and distribution aren’t the only ethical questions posed to homeware sellers by consumers.
Alongside wanting to see lower environmental impact, many are also concerned about the working conditions and welfare of those tied up in supplying the sector with materials and in the manufacture of the items themselves. 38.9% strongly agree with wanting to see staff and their communities being treated properly, a figure that rises to a colossal 94.4% when you look at those who agree as well.
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