In early 2022, Morphum was engaged by a small goods and charcuterie distributor to undertake a Sustainability Audit of operations at their warehouse in Melbourne.
The client, a distribution and import business in the artisanal foods industry, predominantly supplies restaurants and cafés in metropolitan Melbourne.
The client reached out to Morphum to help understand their current sustainability performance and receive guidance on where improvements could be made in warehouse and business operations. As a small to medium-sized enterprise, having audited, managed, and significantly improved sustainability performance while growing our business over the past 12 years, Morphum embraced the opportunity to leverage this knowledge while taking a closer look at the sustainability challenges for product-based businesses.
The sustainability audit assessed the client´s environmental performance across four key areas: energy; mileage; water; and waste.
Morphum provided a snapshot of the client´s sustainability performance based on data from the previous 12 months using energy bills, fleet mileage, and water consumption. Through a site visit to the Kensington warehouse, Morphum could see how the client currently manages their waste and identify which appliances are likely to use the most electricity.
Following analysis of the data and site-visit which resulted in a comprehensive picture of the client´s sustainability performance, some of the improvement recommendations provided by Morphum included: exploring the opportunity for other solar panels on one of the warehouse rooves, creating an environmental management system which could be ISO certified; formalising already existing food-sharing relationships with local charities to serve communities in need; and designing a sustainable water management plan, which could involve, for example, rainwater harvesting. Further research would be required to understand which recommendations would lead to the most significant improvements and at what cost, along with understanding what changes align with the client´s available resources.
At Morphum, we believe an initial sustainability assessment is vital in setting an organisation up to increase its positive environmental impact and limit negative effects. It was essential for our client to have a baseline performance assessment from which they could then make decisions on which areas of their sustainability performance they wish to focus on improving. Morphum is proud to work collaboratively and empower other organisations to take an honest look at where they are on their sustainability journey now while keeping sight of where they desire to be and taking steps together to get there.