The Food Exchange at New Covent Garden Market (NCGM) was the venue this morning (Tuesday 14/1) for the launch of a new report examining how we can reduce the environmental impact of deliveries into central London.

Organised by Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA) and supported by Petit Forestier, a leading provider in the refrigeration and cold chain solutions industry, the event launched the conclusions of the ‘Reducing the Environmental impact of Deliveries to London’s West End’ report, as well as an opportunity to see the newest fleet of temperature-controlled EVs that can support a move away from diesel towards using electric vehicles (EVs), for fresh food deliveries into the West End and beyond.

“The event was a strong foundation to move forward everyone’s thinking of the wider food solutions for London,” says CGMA Chair Wanda Goldwag, OBE, pictured above with one of the electric vehicles at the event. “We wanted to provide attendees with food for thought.”

Guests included representatives from across the supply chain for London’s hospitality business, as well as reps from central Government, London councils, and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) such as the Cross River Partnership.

Chris Sturman of Craymere Consulting (pictured above), one of the report’s authors, welcomed guests, highlighting how this event was significant as the importance of electric vehicles to the environment have changed, alongside the needs of wholesale markets such as NCGM. Chris explained how he and his colleagues had set up the report with on-site research at NCGM, working with wholesale businesses and Petit Forestier.

The move to an EV fleet
Barrie Javens, Petit Forestier’s UK Managing Director (pictured above), said it was ‘a great honour’ to be part of the report and the potential solutions. “We want to help our customers and the environment – sustainability is the key,” explained Barrie, reiterating how Petit Forestier is the market leader for commercial EVs, particularly from a lease perspective. “The refrigerated elements of our EVs are relatively unique in the market and significantly reduce CO2 emissions. We’re super proud of helping all our customers transition to a new EV world.”

“We’re building new solutions to reduce emissions and want to capture all the benefits of EVs so that our customers can then explain that to their clients,” said Barrie.

The report’s three aims
The approach to the report had three aims to reduce the impact of deliveries: to Reduce, Remode and Retime.

• Reduce: focused on reducing the number of deliveries made each day via consolidation.
• Remode: looked at how deliveries are made, eg moving from a diesel vehicle to an electric vehicle or from a van to a cargo bike.
• Retime: looked at changing the time-of-day deliveries are made, eg deliveries at periods when the traffic is low will be faster and spend less time in traffic, reducing emissions.

The report’s conclusion
The daily flow of vans from NCGM to the West End cannot be reduce through consolidation of deliveries and with retiming of deliveries being dependant on the customer. Moving from diesel to EVs is the option that NCGM have concluded will have the most positive environmental impact. You can read the report’s full summary here.