Coop and Gordon are embarking on a collaborative pilot project aimed at revolutionizing food delivery. In this innovative initiative, customers who purchase their groceries online will receive their home deliveries in cutting-edge circular packaging, which effectively replaces traditional paper bags. This system is known as ‘Gordon Circular,’ and Coop proudly takes the lead as the inaugural grocery chain to put it to the test.
“We are looking forward to starting the pilot together with Gordon. We see the development of circular packaging as necessary given the large volumes of daily goods that are delivered to customers today,” says Niklas Zeitlin, responsible for e-commerce Coop Sweden.
Gordon Circular, developed by the last mile company Gordon, represents a comprehensive approach to optimizing home deliveries in the Nordic countries. The system comprises three key components: physical packaging, a logistics solution, and a tech solution for traceability and recipient communication.
The physical packaging used in the pilot project features two main parts. The first is a durable outer casing designed to protect the goods during transit to the consumers. The second is a soft, reusable bag specifically tailored to Coop’s needs, facilitating efficient picking and handling from store to customer. Following the delivery, customers return these crates to Gordon during their next order. Subsequently, the crates undergo thorough washing and preparation for reuse in subsequent deliveries by Coop.
This novel approach offers tremendous environmental benefits. A life cycle analysis conducted by Linköping University reveals that the reusable bag needs just five cycles within the system to outperform the climate impact of a single-use paper bag. Furthermore, if the box is used for an additional 20 loops, its overall climate impact is reduced by a remarkable 65% compared to that of a disposable paper bag.
“Coop’s goal is for us together with Gordon to better understand how we can find the best ways to make it easier for our e-commerce customers and reduce resource use. We are doing this to be able to adjust our operations and then scale up the way of working so that more customers at coop.se can take part in the solution,” says Mattis Bergquist, sustainability manager for Coop Sweden.
“Being able to demonstrate so early in the development that consumer benefits can be combined with environmental benefits is incredibly fun. Our hope is that consumers will find it easy to receive and return these reusable bags and we are so happy that Coop wants to test this with us,” says Catherine Alsén Gelfgren, project manager for Gordon Circular.
The pilot that has now started is being followed by a plan to quickly scale up the system in Sweden.
