Are delivery companies seen as ‘green’ in the press?

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Alongside many other major industries, such as pharma and public transport, delivery and logistics companies are having to amend the structure of their operations in the face of the climate crisis.

British news outlets have recently started looking into the green strategies of established companies like Evri, while newer and more sustainable companies such as CitySprint are emerging in response to the call for action. 

Over the past few months, several new service developments have launched across the delivery and logistics sector that demonstrate clear, target-based initiatives in support of climate action.

National media sources have expressed continued interest in reporting on the sustainability efforts of well-known companies, while recently picking up stories from smaller start-ups too.

Key Takeaways

  • Deutsche Post DHL group have produced the highest volume of positive coverage throughout Q1, while coverage for Freightliner and Ocean Network Express (ONE).
  • P&O Ferries had the second-highest Share of Voice, but several negative stories made national news and ultimately diluted positive coverage.
  • Two leading delivery and logistics companies reaped the benefits of partnering with Sky Media.
  • Alike to the pharma industry, companies with additional environmental accreditations and awards are proving to have more of a positive relationship with the press than otherwise.

Which companies are getting the most climate-related coverage?

*Data samples were collected from 1 Jan – 14 Mar 2022. Coverage represents all national/regional online news and trade-related publications discussing climate action from delivery/logistics companies functioning in the UK (663 articles in total).

Throughout the first quarter of 2023, Deutsche Post DHL Group received the strongest share of voice overall in relation to sustainability coverage. This was due to several national headlines in relation to climate efforts, which often cited the ‘record sum’ that the business invested in digitisation and sustainability.

ESG targets were heavily praised in 46% of its coverage, with some headlines claiming they ‘walk the talk’ in green-focused growth. The group has also been significantly mentioned within the conversation about CO2 parcel labels, a net zero initiative in Germany that the UK is considering adopting.

Significant highs and lows for P&O Ferries

Whereas Deutsche Post DHL group coverage was over 80% positive, P&O Ferries have had much more significant highs and lows.

Between 10-14 January, the company’s press release about saving ‘85,00 tons of carbon emissions’ performed well across trade-specific publications.

In March, the company were left ‘red-faced’ when they discovered hybrid ships could not be plugged in at Dover or Calais ports. This was the most prominent and high-reaching story for P&O Ferries, leaving their reputation in a much more vulnerable state than its competitors.

Industry partnerships with Sky

Between 28 February and 8 March, Royal Mail and Unipart Logistics both reaped the benefits of climate-related work with Sky Media.

On 1 March, Sky announced the purchase of 11 new Mercedes-Benz eVito electric panel vans, as part of its net zero 2030 drive. As a repair and customer service partner for the company, Unipart Logistics’ Head of Fleet Rob Hannam was quoted in 62% this coverage – which mostly spanned across auto and other trade publications. Even though Unipart were not the core focus of the coverage, this has been its highest quality brand coverage in relation to climate efforts this year.

On the other hand, Royal Mail recently gained coverage around its ‘Footprints’ campaign encouraging UK consumers to send parcels in greener ways. The advert was a product of winning £250,000 in broadcast coverage as part of Sky’s Zero Footprint Fund. Sonia Sudhakar, MD of Marketing and Digital at Royal Mail, was cited in 38% of this coverage stating how they’ll continue to ‘campaign for the entire industry to empower customers and help tackle climate change’.

While Royal Mail have launched several green initiatives this year alone, coverage appears to fall short. Compared to other organisations in this sector, the service has published less sustainability-focused press releases to the public; which could be a contributing factor towards its smaller media presence than competitors.

Growth of ESG discussion in general news sources

References to ESG in news sources has grown rapidly since the pandemic, which in turn speaks to the growing interest in this term from the wider public, as shown in the Google search data — as web searches grow, so have media mentions and vice versa. We have seen this in the pharma industry, where the public demand for better sustainability comms has been widely discussed over the past three years.

Last week, WSJ reported that companies working to promote ESG in the workplace have proven to outperform their peers through improved innovation, higher sales growth and profitability, while those that are slow to adapt will face increasing regulatory and reputational risks.

Top Stories and Sentiment 

*Data samples were collected from 1 January – 14 Mar 2022. Coverage represents all national/regional online news and trade-related publications discussing climate action from delivery/logistics companies functioning in the UK. Sentiment figures represent all coverage generated in relation to the relevant brands.

While Deutsche Post DHL Group maintained the strongest share of voice, Freightliner and Ocean Network Express (ONE) achieved the strongest ratio of positive coverage overall. This was due to a partnership between the two companies that allows Freightliner to travel using biodegradable oil, purchased by ONE.

This headline was widely distributed across national news publications from 22 to 28 February, while 68% of trade publications cited ONE Director Simon Parsons as ‘hopeful’ to further expand green networks throughout the UK moving forward.

Over 90% of coverage was due to the release of research detailing opportunity in the UK to electrify 95% of rail freight operations by the 2040s. While volumes were low against competitors, CILT received the most prominent media mentions; mostly discussed across transport-specific publications, CILT was mentioned in 96% of headlines.

Despite being one of the biggest public delivery services in the UK, Evri has had the least positive coverage in relation to climate efforts. The company has been active in its sustainable initiatives, such as e-cargo bike deliveries, but overall media interest has been low. This is likely due to the onslaught of negative coverage that emerged at the same time in other areas of the business. During this analysis period, media attention was focused on concerns around labour rights; which massively overshadowed positive initiatives.

The company has shared several climate-related press releases, but were released during or after negative news emerged. When enduring a PR crisis, our research suggests that timing is key — the media are much less likely to pick up positive stories following a negative spike.

Sustainability is no longer an optional investment

Overall, it seems that the media consensus is that sustainability is no longer secondary to profitability across delivery and logistics. Rather, it is ‘viewed as a driver of future growth’ as cleaner transport options are being taken ever more seriously.

Nancy Hobhouse, Head of ESG at Evri, reported to the press that ‘businesses who have a sustainable purpose, or a robust sustainability strategy, are outperforming competitors’, while Richard Cook, Fleet Director at DHL added that “customers are increasingly environmentally conscious and will hold businesses to high standards of sustainability, making it a critical focus”.

Media interest around net zero targets are not going away any time soon and journalists are particularly interested in reliable claims. Deutsche Post DHL Group, which has outperformed competitors in the way of sustainability coverage, has recently joined the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) which helps companies to make clear and actionable climate strategies.

Across Vuelio Insights’ wider crisis research, we have found that companies who have additional accreditations, awards and initiatives (i.e., SBTi) are more likely to maintain positive media interest than those who have not, all the while reducing the risk of greenwashing allegations.

In recent years, sustainability has become a necessary investment that could greatly impact shareholder prices if neglected. From e-scooters to hybrid ships, efforts across the sector are clear and are more abundant than ever.

Want to know more about this data or how media insights can support your PR and communications? Find out more.

In the race to net zero, how is ‘green pharma’ perceived around the world?  

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Following the commencement of COP27 in November 2022, a report by the Office of Health Economics (OHE) declared that immediate action must be taken by health organisations to secure the era of green pharmaceuticals.

Europe, Australasia and North America have collectively committed to net-zero by 2050, meaning sustainability will evolve from an add-on to appease green stakeholders into a ‘business-critical strategy’ to protect operational licences.

The pharmaceutical industry is considered a‘major emitter’ of greenhouse gases, producing 55% more than the automotive sector. Greener mechanisms will need to be rapidly adopted to reduce such large-scale emissions and plastic production, which are ‘most prevalent’ in R&D, operational processes and medicine delivery.

When pharma’s contributions to climate change became a focus point at the COP27 event in Egypt, industry news and health publications began its continued interest into how the biggest players are making their first steps. The risk of ‘greenwashing’ accusations is high across all sectors — pharmaceutical brands must be vigilant in proving they can ‘walk the talk’ once their commitments to sustainability have been publicised.

Key Takeaways

  • Since 2022, ‘green pharma’ has evolved in the press from a public demand to a business-critical strategy
  • Unbranded headlines that outline the collaborative efforts of multiple pharma brands are outperforming those that list specific companies
  • Alongside the general discussion of green pharma growth, the UK produced 10.2% more coverage on brand-focused initiatives than the rest of Europe, North America and Australasia
  • Environmental accreditations like the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) can significantly enhance media awareness and legitimacy of sustainability claims

The UK continues to be a leading source of ‘green pharma’ coverage, producing approx. 2,369 articles since 1 Nov 2022. This is only 30% less than Europe’s collective output, where Switzerland is the most active speaker (approx. 940 articles) with Germany close behind (approx. 731 articles). North America has produced around 6,200 articles and just over 2,000 were produced across Australasia.

Most-mentioned brands

 *Data shown above measures all climate-focused pharmaceutical coverage published in national/international news sources and health-related industry publications (approx. 13,700 articles across Europe, N. America & Australasia) between 1 Nov 2022 and 9 Jan 2023.

Across all countries measured by the Vuelio Insights team, the UK produced the most brand-focused content (as opposed to generalised ‘green pharma’ discussion). Approximately 39.7% of all coverage focused on the specific actions of one or more pharmaceutical companies, whereas Europe produced 29.5%, Australasia 26.8% and North America 16.12%.

Collaborative efforts outperform specific brand stories

That being said, the highest-reaching and most prominent coverage on this topic has been that which summarises a collective of pharma efforts, such as ‘Seven pharma CEOs unite to achieve net zero healthcare’ or ‘Japanese drugmakers make greener packaging pledge’.

This overview style of article demonstrated incomparable engagement in all countries measured. As the most successful story of the entire period, the ‘seven CEOs’ piece was repurposed 2,486 times across international news sources and pharma publications.

Although 65% of general news headlines were unbranded, some trade titles opted for branded variations ie PRWeek’s ‘Merck, AstraZeneca, GSK CEOs announce efforts to curb emissions in healthcare’. Although this was a strong source of positive prominence for some companies, unbranded headlines received a 66% higher reach in all publication types. Ultimately, all article variations offered headline and/or significant mentions for all of the listed brands and accounted for approximately 82% of international coverage for GSK, Samsung Biologics, Merck Group and Roche.

Top Stories

*Data shown above defines ‘top story’ as that which has achieved significant national or international media awareness across 200+ news or pharma publications, also offering either headline or significant prominence for one or more pharmaceutical companies. Overall pos. sentiment is calculated as positive + neutral combined.

AstraZeneca 

While AstraZeneca and Samsung Biologics were also part of the ‘seven CEOs’ piece, both brands performed better overall with stories that produced lower volume. For example, across Europe and North America, AstraZeneca’s ‘Ambition Zero Carbon’ initiative has produced 414 articles in 298 news and industry publications. While this is less than the article with the highest volume, 89% of coverage mentioned AstraZeneca in the headline, while quotes from CEO Pascal Soriot’s COP27 speech were featured in 38.6% of this coverage. Overall, positive prominence was much higher and therefore made the ‘accelerating toward net zero’ piece their top story.

Samsung Biologics

The same principle of prominence > volume applies to Samsung Biologics’ top story. Among all coverage on net zero healthcare across the studied regions, the company’s acquisition of the Terra Carta Seal  was the brand’s most positive and prominent piece across major international news publications and pharmaceutical media outlets.

Roche & Merck Group 

As for Roche and Merck, both brands performed best in the ‘seven CEOs’ piece in terms of volume, sentiment & prominence combined. However, Roche outperformed AstraZeneca as one of the most-mentioned pharma brands of those recognised for its ‘science-based targets’ and a ‘clearly-defined pathway’ to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals. With over 4,000 businesses following the SBTi initiative since 2015, it has become an established benchmark for success within scientific journalism.

Takeda

Across Australasia, Takeda has benefitted from a similar style of broad and unbranded coverage recognising collaborative environmental efforts. Alongside Astellas, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo, its collaborative involvement in efforts to reduce pharmaceutical packaging was covered 733 times from 15 Dec 2022 – 5 Jan 2023, which made up 37.2% of the total coverage across the collective regions.

Bayer

On the topic of net zero healthcare, Bayer has been the only pharma company to receive a significant and international volume of negative coverage since COP27 in November. This was driven by one highly prominent story on Jeff Ubben, an environmental activist and prospective Bayer investor who is pushing for an ‘external CEO’ to better support net zero goals within the company.

Media awareness around this discussion peaked between 7 and 23 Jan. The Financial Times reported on this story from multiple angles between 9 and 23 Jan, as part of both general news and in its ’Moral Money’ sections. As a result, the publication produced the highest international readership and engagement on the story.

Ubben was quoted saying that an external hire would be a ‘clean break from the past’, referencing severe litigations taken against Bayer when it acquired Monsanto and its herbicide, Roundup, which is notorious for its lethal impact to environmental and human health.

Urgency from all sides

Over the past few years, media discussion around net zero healthcare has evolved rapidly. As an industry once known as ‘reluctant’ to prioritise sustainability, 2022 was the year of the public call to action for better ESG strategies. Now, as we begin 2023, it has evolved from a demand to an ‘urgent’ necessity — that will have a detrimental operational impact if neglected.

Nick Hoile, senior director of the Health practice at PR agency MHP, made a public statement in November stating that there is a ‘medical education and communications piece’ that needs to be done at all levels, including the conversations sales teams have with individual physicians. Further, Hoile argued that health communicators have a ‘pivotal role’ in shaping the green narrative and would be wise to acquire ‘environmental credentials’ as soon as possible.

As proven by the prominent positive coverage of AstraZeneca, joining the SBTi is a visible example of how such credentials can massively impact net zero brand awareness across international media sources.

In an article titled ‘Will ESG be 2023’s Hottest Business Topic in Bio/Pharma?’, Life Science Leader argued that joining SBTi is also a sure-fire way to prove authenticity and avoid ‘greenwashing’ allegations.

Want to know more about this data or how media insights can support your PR and communications? Find out more.