Wearing our green credentials with pride
As a network driven by collective expertise, UPN understands that safeguarding the planet is a responsibility we all share—especially in logistics. Together with our member depots, we’re setting the benchmark for sustainable palletised freight: investing in cleaner vehicles, optimising line-haul routes, and championing carbon-saving innovations across the network. Our commitment keeps growing, and we’re only getting started.
Between April 2024 and March 2025, our collective network initiative offset 28,500 tonnes of CO₂—the emissions generated by pallets travelling 26 million miles on UK roads. Carbon output was measured under ISO 14064-1:2018 and the GHG Emissions Protocol Accounting & Reporting Standards, with independent certification from Carbon Neutral Britain.
Offsets are channelled into projects verified by the Verra – Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the Gold Standard – Voluntary Emission Reductions (VER) and the United Nations – Certified Emission Reductions (CER) programmes. Each project is hand-picked not only for reliable carbon mitigation, but also for wider benefits that matter to our depots—boosting education, employment and clean-water access while delivering net-positive outcomes for local wildlife and ecosystems.
Over that same 12-month window, the UPN network maintained an average trailer utilisation of 77%, comfortably outperforming the 51% industry norm reported by the Association of Pallet Networks (APN). By keeping more pallet space productively filled on every run, our depots cut empty miles, trim fuel burn, and turn higher utilisation into both cost savings and credible carbon reductions for the entire network.
As part of our wider sustainability drive, the UPN network is now entering the final stages of securing ISO 14001 environmental-management certification. The work behind this standard has given us a clear, auditable framework that tracks every way our operations touch the environment—handing each depot practical levers to boost performance. The progress we make here will feed straight into this year’s network-wide business objectives and keep raising the bar for responsible logistics.
