Sustainability
With climate change becoming a ubiquitous topic and pollution on the rise, it is our duty as humanity to think about environmental sustainability.
You may be wondering whether it is sustainable to use self-storage, or whether it increases our ecological footprint? On this page, you will find out everything about it.
At Storo, we take the environment into account.
Why? Because we want future generations to be able to enjoy our beautiful piece of earth, and we should cherish it! We do not do this alone: as a customer, you also directly contribute to a better environment.
You can read below why this is the case.
How do you, as a customer, contribute to a better environment?
Individuals
If you rent a storage unit from Storo as a private customer, you take a sustainable environment into account, perhaps unconsciously. Whether it is for your move, a renovation or a lack of space, discover what added value you can bring.
Consumer trends with a negative impact on the environment
About 40% of the customers who rent a storage unit do so to store furniture and clothes. Other items that are often stored are sports equipment and seasonal items such as skis, camping equipment and Christmas trees :-)...
The production of all these things puts an enormous strain on our planet. The textile industry, for example, is one of the most polluting, driven by so-called ‘fast fashion’. Clothes are often bought that are relatively (and with good reason) cheap, and they are thrown away after one season. This is not sustainable in the long term.
Why? 20% of global water pollution comes from the textile sector, and 5% of global waste is made up of discarded clothes. 10% of total global greenhouse gas emissions come from the fashion industry.
As far as furniture goes, it isn’t much better. Furniture is usually made of wood and is often produced with highly polluting chemicals such as glues and polymers.
Both sectors are stepping up their efforts, but the best thing you can do as a Storo customer is to keep the things you own for as long as possible.
You can do great things with clothes that you would otherwise throw away. Every once in a while everything comes back into fashion, and you would otherwise have to buy these clothes again.
The same goes for furniture: at the moment it may not fit your interior or may be in the way, but this is often not forever.
Keep it or buy it again: which is more sustainable?
As the American Keyes once said: “To worry about what you don’t have is to waste what you have.” So cherish what you have, because it is not always necessary to hunt for new things. Storing your precious items in a safe and heated environment extends their life and reduces the need to buy new ones. Positive for your budget, but also for the environment.
Storing your belongings for future use is financially and environmentally sustainable.
Self-storage for smaller living
Transport is the main cause of CO₂ emissions in cities. The use of bicycles and public transport is increasing year after year, resulting in fewer emissions. Unfortunately, people often do not have the space in an apartment to store their bicycles or other sustainable alternatives. That is why people often stop using non-polluting transport.
There is also often no room in an apartment for hobby materials and seasonal items. We are living in ever smaller spaces, which will only make this problem worse.
In Washington (United States), about 20% of residents who live in an apartment already use self-storage for this problem. These units are visited several times a week because they serve as extra storage.
Businesses
Decentralizing storage
As a company, small or large, it is important to achieve an optimal distribution of services and goods. This can be done by using several decentralized warehouses spread across a region. At Storo, you can rent a storage unit at several locations to achieve this. Good for your logistics process, your wallet and the environment.
Decentralized warehouses provide greater delivery flexibility, lower transport costs and shorter delivery times, and make deliveries with smaller trucks or vans financially attractive. A large truck is no longer always necessary for these smaller warehouses.
Self-storage is not limited to storage alone. You can rent a storage unit for your employees in a certain region, where they can go every day to start their day without getting stuck in traffic. That way, they do not have to go to the central warehouse every time they need extra goods. They drive to the warehouse closest to their home.
Fewer kilometers, less CO₂ emissions. Fewer kilometers, happier staff. Fewer kilometers, savings in logistics.
Of course, you cannot use a large warehouse for every region, so it is better to take only the square meters you need for a certain area. This costs more per m², but in absolute terms much less! You do not have to take a minimum number of square meters, as is the case with an SME unit. And this reduces your ecological footprint.
Last-mile delivery
Last-mile delivery is the final step in delivering goods to the consumer or to a retail location. Storage space on the outskirts of the city can be a sustainable solution for this. With a limited number of square meters, you can organize your city-center logistics from the outskirts. Larger vehicles deliver to the outskirts of the city, and goods are then distributed within the city using small, sustainable solutions. Think of the cargo bikes you often see, or small electric vehicles that are gradually making their way.
What Storo does about it
- By digitizing all processes, Storo works paperless.
- Sustainable, non-polluting cleaning products are used at the sites.
- All our buildings are sufficiently insulated, so that there is minimal heat loss.
- We use sensor-controlled LED lighting everywhere, so we only consume energy when it is needed.
- Because we work centrally from one office, there is no unnecessary consumption of utilities at the different locations.