REG IO N A L FO C U S Putters Internationals impressive HQ building MADELINE VAN DER RHEE, GOSSELIN MANAGER, BENELUX The challenge remains to gain insight into our partners ecological footprint 48 overtime. In the past, you could go to terminals without making an appointment and theyd help. Now, you have to book a slot. The port has become more and more congested. COVID didnt help, but we had the problem before. Other green measures introduced by Putters include using a special crane to stack containers, which, as it descends or brakes, gives back energy used for producing electricity to power the office. Packing materials are reused where possible, with plastic and much else sorted for recycling. When we were moving, people gave us furniture they didnt want and we used to take it to the waste tip, he says. Now, we have companies that pick it up and try to give it a second life. While his company may save money and waste through fewer journeys to the tip, profit isnt the motive, Putters insists. I feel it is the proper thing to do. For Max Chorus, Managing Director at Luxembourgbased Streff, clean-running and efficient trucks are a top priority. We have a very modern fleet of trucks and packing vans, he says. We check on their engines to make sure theyre as good [environmentally friendly] as possible. Like Putters, Chorus has pondered buying an electric fleet, but he too doesnt feel the time is right yet. The range isnt as good as we need. Nor is his sales team ready for a switch to electric cars they drive 300400km and the batteries arent good enough. Streff has long been an inventive packer of household goods. It has designed security boxes for packing fragile items; special boxes to pack awkward shapes, such as standard lamps; and, through its data-protection arm, container collection bins, complete with shredder, enabling sensitive paperwork to be disposed of on the premises. Reusable packing material is also widely used by the company, while Streffs energy-saving measures include better-insulated premises. Switching to LED lamps, meanwhile, has cut the amount of power it uses on lighting by 95 per cent. We have a department to sort out waste brought back from our moves were authorised by Luxembourgs environmental ministry, says Chorus. Our warehouse has a machine that presses items into containers, reducing journeys to recycling centres. That technology means, for example, that 30 cubic metres of waste polystyrene wrapping can be WWW.FID I FOC U S . OR G