Integrating environmental sustainability into everyday business practice is absolutely essential for our organisation. Our customers are increasingly looking for a guarantee that the products supplied to them are sourced and delivered to the highest environmental standards.

As a nationwide supplier to the catering industry it is impossible to avoid our impact on the environment, our aim is therefore to manage our impact, reduce our food miles wherever possible, and ensure that future developments are as eco-friendly as possible.

We are continually searching for ways this can be achieved, through our environmental accreditations and partnerships, a range of transport measures and latest eco-technology practices.

Environmental Management Standard

We achieved our ISO 14001 (International Standard of Environmental Management) accreditation in 2009. Our continuing goals are to:

• Reduce environmantal pollution
• Reduce the amount of waste packaging
• Minimise the amount of waste we send to landfill
• Minimise the environmental impact of all of our operations
• Maximise the use of recycled packaging

Food Miles

Food miles are one of the factors we use when assessing the environmental impact of our food, particularly its impact on global warming. We are committed to the practice of reducing our carbon emission levels through whatever means are necessary.

Our latest technological improvements have been in installing advanced routing and scheduling optimisation software to our logistical operations. The software provides both customer service improvements, as well as reducing operational costs by maximising the use of assets, but most importantly, lowers the carbon footprint of our fleet of over 200 dual-temperature delivery vehicles.

This innovative software system will deliver immediate environmental benefits through its intelligent methods of automating delivery planning, including remodelling and optimising all of our existing fixed delivery routes. The process takes into consideration:

• Weights and volumes of deliveries
• Road and delivery restrictions
• Mileage and other customer requirement

Environmental Impact of Deliveries

We have a rolling programme of vehicle replacement to ensure that our transport fleet is consistently as fuel-efficient and eco-friendly as possible. As part of this programme, all of our our latest commissions include technology which cuts harmful emissions by over a third.

These state-of-the-art vehicles exceed government carbon emission recommendations and are fitted with Frigoblock electric twin evaporator refrigeration systems, which meet the latest Euro 5 regulations, to minimise our carbon footprint. Frigoblock benefits include:

• Electrically powered
• Reduce the overall vehicle weight, fuel consumption, noise and CO2 emissions by up to 50%
• Other harmful emissions like Nox are reduced by up to 90%
• Alternator drive systems have proved superior to conventional systems in terms of both cost efficiency and reliability
• Low noise levels of these units allow early morning or late night operations to occur with minimal risk of disturbance

These new vehicles underline dbc's continued commitment to reducing the environmental impact of operations.

“These measures are just a small example of our everyday business practice to help us minimise our carbon footprint. Sustainability is a top priority for dbc and something that we assess regularly.”