Sustainability at SB Supply

Sustainability actually starts before the office - on the way to work. At SB Supply, all employees are encouraged to cycle to work. This is not only good for their health, but also for the environment. According to Focus, each person is responsible for an average of 2.6 kilograms of CO2 emissions (calculated economically) on their way to and from the office. Of course, we have also started to protect the environment in our office. Our servers have been carbon neutral for some time and our office is 99% paperless. The one percent comes from correspondence with authorities or partners, which is unfortunately unavoidable. We use electricity and energy efficiently because our office is in a co-working space. This avoids wasting resources such as space and electricity.

According to Business Insider, returns produce as much CO2 as 2,200 car journeys from Hamburg to Moscow. Around 4% of all returns also end up in the bin, not to mention the unnecessary packaging waste caused by returns. These figures prompted us to take meaningful action. Of course, not all returns can be avoided. But our accurate product descriptions, high quality images and videos help to prevent mistakes. Our qualified customer service helps our customers identify and correct any faults. Our customer service is always available to answer any questions our customers may have and to help find a solution. We always try to repair items or send replacement parts to reduce product waste. A controversial decision we have made in this regard is that our customers have to pay for the return shipment themselves. This is not because we want to save money, but because we want to make our customers aware of the environmental cost of returns. We also want to discourage people from ordering things they do not need and then changing their mind. Of course, in the event of a warranty claim, our customers will receive a paid-for return label.

We also generally avoid partial shipments. A partial shipment means that when a customer orders several items, they are sent one at a time. At SB Supply, we avoid this by only allowing partial shipments at the customer's request. This avoids unnecessary transport and packaging.

To further reduce our carbon footprint, we partner with DHL's GoGreen programme, which offers carbon neutral delivery services. DHL actively reduces emissions through optimised transport routes and environmentally friendly vehicles, and offsets the remaining CO2 emissions through certified carbon offset projects. By choosing DHL, we ensure our deliveries are more sustainable and contribute to a greener planet with every package we send.