Sustainability at bol
An interview with Jori Ebskamp, Lead CSR
Jori Ebskamp is Lead CSR at bol.com. For the past three and a half years he has been involved in setting up and improving the sustainability program. Now he mainly ensures that new projects are started and better objectives are set. To make bol.com climate neutral by 2025. In this interview, he takes us into the socially responsible world of bol.com and he looks back on the sustainability month.
Climate-neutral by 2025
“As a CSR Lead, I’m committed to an increasingly sustainable bol.com. We focus on getting our emissions as low as possible. Our ambition is therefore that you can shop climate-neutral at bol.com by 2025. In doing so, we focus on reducing the impact of our energy use, packaging, and delivery.”
“For example, we’re working towards 100% local wind and solar energy for our buildings. Also, we make more sustainable packaging with less air and 75% of the packages are shipped without filling material. In many cases, we ship our shipments without a box, because it’s not necessary at all. For example, vacuum cleaners and fans often already have packaging that is strong enough. This year, 7 million items will be shipped without a box. Every year we look again at which products this is possible. In this way, we don’t ship unnecessary packaging and we reduce our emissions.”
“We don’t just focus on packaging and shipping. Before a package is shipped, it first must be selected and ordered. In our store, we offer 16,000 sustainable products this year. Our goal is to offer a sustainable alternative on all our shelves by 2022. Besides, there are already more than 2 million second-hand and return deal products available in our webshop. This way you can easily make a sustainable choice at bol.com.”
As a CSR Lead, I’m committed to an increasingly sustainable bol.com. We focus on getting our emissions as low as possible.
September = Sustainability Month
“We realize sustainability together with every one of bol.com. It’s therefore important to involve all colleagues and keep them informed of progress. That’s why we organize a sustainability month every year. The theme month allows us to focus on one topic. It motivates people and that’s exactly what we need. Last September, we paid attention to sustainability at three different levels. We have made our colleagues aware of sustainability itself and why it’s important to the world. Second, we made clear what bol.com does about sustainability and what we’re doing to ultimately become climate neutral. Finally, we focused on what you can do yourself about sustainability. How you can personally reduce your footprint as a colleague.”
“For example, we had an online event where Gerrit Hiemstra, weather forecaster at the NOS and climate expert, talked about climate change and what you can do about it yourself. There was also the bol.com Footprint Challenge. With this challenge, bol.commers were challenged to reduce their footprint in 40 days. In this way, we could make a difference together with our colleagues. Last but not least, there was a WeCycle hand-in station in the reception hall of our office. In a Corona-safe way, you could return products here such as batteries and electronic devices.”