A Guide To Sustainable Shipping Options

In recent years, the buzzword “Sustainable Living” is often used. Sustainable living describes a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of Mother Earth’s natural resources, and one’s personal resources. It is also called “earth harmony living”, “net zero living” or “zero-waste lifestyle”.

What is Sustainable Living?

Sustainable living can mean not choosing to consume a product that is made using practices that don’t promote sustainability (think plastic and styrofoam), and sometimes it means changing how you do things so that you start becoming more of an active part of the cycle of life.  Global warming, climate change, depletion of the ozone layer, and resource depletion are real and their impact on human and animal lives can be devastating and irreversible.  People have to start the habit of adopting actions for sustainable living that can help them to reduce their carbon footprint or environmental impact by altering their lifestyle.

What is Sustainable Shipping?

Sustainable Transportation refers to any means of transportation that is ‘green’ and environmentally-friendly. Examples of sustainable transportation include walking, cycling, transit, carpooling, car sharing, green vehicles and less-than-load freight (LTL) shipping.  Sustainable Shipping is a holistic management concept for sustainable development, applied to the shipping sector, incorporating environmental and social responsibility.

The transportation sector in many countries have seen a huge rise in C02 emissions over the last decade, contributed mainly by the increase of online shopping and emergence of new online shopping platforms globally. This is only going to rise over time but the good news is that many transportation companies are trying to green up their act as part of their social responsibility.

Companies are aiming to lower their carbon footprint by utilising a host of eco-friendly methods to transport their goods. Consumer should do their part by supporting businesses who are trying to reduce their carbon footprint. The following are 5 “green” methods for transporting goods.

  1. Freight trains
  2. Hybrid delivery vehicles
  3. Couriers by foot or bicycles
  4. Biodiesel trucking
  5. Less-Than-Load freight shipping

What is Less-Than-Load Freight Shipping?

Less-than-load freight (LTL) shipping typically involves the shipping of large items (or multiple smaller items) that will not take up the entirety of a vehicle’s space. It is often cheaper than other freight services as it does not require an entire journey to be made to ship just your items, instead they are added to a vehicle already making a journey.

The main advantage to using LTL freight shipping is that a shipment may be transported for a fraction of the cost of hiring an entire truck and trailer for an exclusive shipment. Since the carrier is already moving multiple freight shipments from multiple shippers, the freight carrier pools all the shipments onto a single freight truck. Therefore, each shipper pays a fraction of the cost of utilizing the truck or trailer.

To find out more about LTL freight shipping to support sustainable shipping option for a greener environment, you can browse shipping service sites like Shipy, an online shipment marketplace that connects shipping companies and customers. They empower shipping companies to maximize spare vehicle space (thus reducing harmful CO2 emissions by reducing the number of otherwise wasteful trips), all while providing users with the best possible price for their shipment.  You will receive free quotes via email from Shiply by filling out a simple online form.

We should all support eco-friendly logistics that are respectful towards the environment and ensure its preservation for the coming generations.

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