Urban life is busy, fast-paced, and hence, there usually is no time to wait. Convenience, therefore, has become the biggest value that customers seek and start-ups and industries aim to provide. In the age of technology, however, we must remember to make sustainable choices  and consume mindfully too.

This World Nature Conservation Day, let’s talk sustainability and why it is important for us. We will also talk about what we at Milkbasket, the first and the largest grocery micro-delivery service in India, are doing for sustainability in India.

Making sustainable choices – why and how

Harvard naturalist Dr. Edward O Wilson, in the late 70’s, popularized the hypothesis ‘Biophilia’. He wrote a book with the same title in 1974 that defines Biophila as the tendency to connect with Nature. According to the theory, we humans have an innate inclination to be connected to nature and other forms of life. 

Our love for the monsoon breeze, the tendency to run towards natural places for vacations, and increased vitality and health in natural surroundings must be clear manifestations of this concept. We often feel a sense of calmness, increased endorphin-activity, and relief when surrounded harmlessly by nature.

For the love of nature and acknowledging our responsibility towards the posterity, it’s important to strengthen the movement towards nature conservation and sustainability in India.

Leveraging Technology & Planning for Sustainability in Supply Chain & Logistics

With online ordering becoming the norm, E-commerce organizations are now striving towards operational excellence. It’s common to see multiple delivery agents working for various companies every time you’re on the road. It’s a necessity, but the challenge is in making the system responsible and sustainable.

Sustianability with Milkbasket’s One-time Morning Delivery Model

At Milkbasket, the Operations team is working on solving this issue with our ‘one-time-morning-delivery’ model. This model ensures that all major needs of our customers are met in an organized, more sustainable and responsible way.

“Milkbasket promotes the culture of planning our needs ahead, making sustainable choices, and being mindful. Therefore, our app allows the customer to add all their requirements throughout the day to their basket and get a one-time fresh morning delivery. This has set us apart among other players in the space and even the environmental impact of this is sizable,” says Ravi Kumar, Operations Team.

Benefits of the Milkbasket Model

The fuel consumption and cost in the per-delivery model is 10X than the Milkbasket delivery model

In the Milkbasket delivery model, each Light Commercial Vehical fulfills an average of 225 orders a day. This is while covering a daily average distance of 30 Kms. 

“At present, we have nearly 650 LCVs for our deliveries, each delivering a daily average of about 225 orders in a go. So, in a month, each of our vehicles is able to deliver more than 6500 orders with a total fuel consumption of upwards of 60 Litres. Delivering the same number of orders through per-delivery basis leads to a consumption of nearly 750 Litres of fuel considering that each bike is able to deliver 8 to 10 orders at a mileage of 40 Kmph. That’s a massive saving in fuel consumption per month for each of our delivery vehicles,” says Ashwini Ray, AVP Marketing at Milkbasket.

The Recycling Feature

Early this year, Milkbasket launched an ongoing programme to recycle plastic and packaging waste. It’d be fair to say that the response we received was promising and reassuring. The option to return bags for recycling is available in the major customer hubs at Milkbasket.

The Recycle Feature is available in the hamburger menu of the Milkbasket app. Users can request for a bag pick-up along with their scheduled order. The reusable plastic bags are then collected and dropped at a plastic processing facility for repurposing and reuse.

Read our previous post to learn more about Recycling at Milkbasket.

Success of our Recycling initiative so far

“In the same morning run when our partners deliver the orders, they also do reverse pick-ups of recyclable packaging bags and tetra-packs. We are able to to check two important targets without any extra fuel consumption. It is almost like the impact that a good public transportation has on the environment as compared to individual vehicle traffic,” shares Ravi Kumar from Milkbasket’s Operations team.

He adds that, “Till date, we have recycled over 14000 Kgs of plastic. It’s empowering to see that so many people are conscious about making sustainable choices. This number is expected to increase as we launch the initiative in other hubs and optimize various touch-points in the cycle.”

What are your ways of taking a green approach at your workplace and home? Share with us in the comments below!