Cutting Carbon in Transportation

Interview: Jyri Somersalo, Responsible for Transportation

Jyri Somersalo oversees the transportation of skins from Saga Furs’ main warehouse to external storage facilities. Like his colleague Mika in maintenance Somersalo says he’s committed to finding logistical savings wherever he can.

“In my job, I’m always looking for ways to lower environmental impacts,” Somersalo affirms, “which usually also means saving time and of course cost.”

In a space optimizing measure in packaging, a system of compressing skins to half their original size has already been developed.

“This approach increases the load capacity per truck and lowers carbon emissions and energy spend.”

Up until recently, Somersalo has overseen a small fleet of trucks traveling back and forth to three external warehouses, located at various distances from the main warehouse. However, when space opened up on a site next door to the Saga Furs Head Office, the decision was made to shut down one warehouse, furthest away, and begin renting new space close to home. With the new warehouse taking effect in 2018, Somersalo has been busy calculating the reduced number of truck journeys and estimates a 20% – year on – year reduction in transport costs and emissions.

Somersalo’s colleagues are also recycling 98% of the packaging cartons in which the delivered skins are received – an estimated 80 tonnes per year. The rest of the material is reused internally.

Even though in the overall picture of the company’s energy spend, these savings are not overly large, Somersalo is motivated by the results, saying: “It’s not a lot in the big picture view, but it’s all worth the effort.”