Operational Excellence Is Climate Action

Operational Excellence Is Climate Action

Sustainability, when it’s real, doesn’t live in a separate strategy. It lives in operations. It looks like daily practice.

Fill the van properly.
Plan shorter, smarter routes.
Right-size the pack.
Print less. Waste less.

Each choice lowers cost to serve. And lowers the footprint.

UPS’s ORION routing shows what scale looks like: ten million gallons of fuel avoided every year. Roughly one hundred thousand tonnes of CO₂ not emitted. Operational discipline turning into measurable climate impact.

The Human Side of Operational Excellence

I’ve seen this up close. When I helped deliver van fill improvements for a national UK online retailer, the challenge wasn’t the model. It was influencing driver behaviour.

Asking people to load and sequence differently. To leave on tighter windows. To close feedback loops on first attempts. Sometimes to work a little harder each day.

What made it work wasn’t a tool. It was leadership. Trust. Clear communication. And showing up in the yard at 6 a.m. Explaining the why. Staying to help. Celebrating the small wins until they became habit.

Where Ways of Working Meet Climate

This is where ways of working meet climate action:

• Shared KPIs that pair cost, service, and CO₂ per delivery.
• One planning rhythm across Commercial, Supply Chain, and Operations.
• Clear handovers. Early trade-offs. Visible decisions.
• Feedback loops that actually close.

And the behaviours that make it stick:

• Drivers who eco-drive consistently.
• Planners who protect load factor.
• Packers who choose the smallest safe pack.
• Leaders who influence habits, not just publish policies.

Quietly. Consistently. Measurably.

Better OTIF. Lower cost. Fewer escalations. A smaller footprint—baked into BAU.

Kholo’s Perspective: Embedding Sustainability in BAU

At Kholo, we help teams hard-wire these behaviours into how work gets done. Operational excellence becomes climate action when sustainability is not an add-on, but a way of working.

Conclusion: Operational Discipline as Climate Strategy

Real sustainability is operational. It’s in the daily choices, the trust built in teams, and the leadership behaviours that turn discipline into impact.

At Kholo, we help organisations embed sustainability into operations, leadership, and culture. Book a call with Kholo.

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