• AS Watson accelerates sustainability in supply chains.
• Global retailer tackles climate change through EV adoption and waste reduction.

Global health and beauty giant, AS Watson, is stepping up its efforts to protect the planet. They are switching their delivery trucks to electric and are focused on cutting down waste throughout their supply chain.

AS Watson CEO, Malina Ngai, says, "As a responsible global retailer, sustainability is at the heart of our business. We've been investing and innovating to reduce our environmental impact and contribute to a more sustainable future. Our latest initiative focuses on making the delivery fleet of our supply chain more environmentally friendly.

"We operate 12 retail brands in our global portfolio, and 60% of them have started using electric vehicles for some of the warehouse-to-store and online order deliveries. While the adoption of electric vehicles is slow in the industry, I believe that we should take on the challenge to launch this initiative in as many markets as possible.”

"Electric vehicles have limited driving range per charge, and insufficient charging infrastructure, which makes long-haul deliveries challenging. Additionally, the current technology solutions to reduce charging times and enhance overall performance are not yet widely available. These constraints result in difficulties for some of our operating markets to broadly deploy electric vehicles. We remain committed to overcoming these obstacles and transitioning our delivery fleet to more sustainable electric options wherever possible.”

Truck emissions contribute a lot to climate change. By using electric vehicles, AS Watson is cutting greenhouse gas emissions and helping to improve air quality. In China, electric vehicles now manage most deliveries in big cities. Elsewhere, they are using electric vans and bikes for online orders and looking into cleaner fuels like natural gas.

AS Watson is also focusing on reducing waste. They have managed to divert most of their warehouse waste from landfills and have halved their plastic packaging.

Ngai added, “We will continue our journey towards supply chain sustainability. We expect to see increasing adoption of electric vehicles and the introduction of more waste reduction initiatives to help create a more sustainable world. At AS Watson, sustainability is not a slogan, but a culture that every one of our 130,000 colleagues globally embrace every day. Only by working together, we can create a truly significant impact on the planet.”

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Source: AS Watson