Flipkart fosters a sustainable value chain to drive responsible

 Flipkart fosters a sustainable value chain to drive responsible
consumption during the Festive Season

Photo Release: Flipkart, India’s home grown e-commerce company is going plastic free for millions of packages along with deploying over 2000 electric vehicles in its delivery fleet prior to the festive season and the Big Billion Days. After successfully eliminating single-use plastic in its own supply chain in July this year, more than 75% of Flipkart’s seller fulfilled shipments are now being processed in sustainable packaging marking a 20x increase over July 2020 covering more than 70 facilities across India.

The increase in adoption rate is a significant outcome of the efforts of teams working with its seller partners, a transition path to gradually adopt sustainable packaging alternatives. The sustainable packaging alternatives were co-created with seller partners to customize designs catering to durability, size constraints and cost efficiency for different product categories.

These 2000 electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers have been deployed across 90 cities in India and will help deliver smiles this festive season sustainably. Earlier this year, the company had committed to deploy 25,000 EVs in its supply chain by 2030 towards its transition to 100% fleet electrification as part of its collaboration with The Climate Group's EV100 campaign.

Mahesh Pratap Singh, Head - Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Flipkart said, “Festive season is about creating progressive value for all stakeholders and we are proud to uphold our promise to our customers to bring them a sustainable festive season with each order. The Flipkart teams have come together to ensure our delivery executives are delivering to thousands of pincodes across 90 cities in more than 2000 electric vehicles, which is a proud moment for us in our journey towards 100% electrification of our last mile fleet. Some of these cities include Bengaluru, Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Waidhan, Hyderabad, Vidisha, Shajapur, Jhabua, Pune, Sonai, Mysore, Rampur and many more as we continue to build sustainability into every part of our work."

Flipkart joins hands with GiveIndia

 Flipkart joins hands with GiveIndia and Giving Tuesday India to encourage festive giving to rebuild communities affected by the pandemic

• Various social causes, including those aimed at helping communities affected by the pandemic, will be highlighted on Flipkart through the month of October
• Flipkart’s employees, sellers and consumers can choose to contribute to the causes they support
• The initiative will simplify the act of giving by offering a digital donation avenue

Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, has partnered with GiveIndia, one of India’s largest and most trusted donation platforms, for DaanUtsav and GivingTuesday India – a one-of-a-kind online giving movement that encourages citizens to donate to causes they believe in and extend support to communities in need, including those that have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Flipkart’s commitment to give back to the community in pressing times is strengthened by its collaboration with GivingTuesday India and DaanUtsav. Starting from October 2, Flipkart will highlight many such causes on its platform, and encourage its employees, sellers, and consumers to make a positive impact through their contribution. The causes covered under GivingTuesday India and DaanUtsav 2020 include a wide spectrum of issues in areas such as Skill Development, Sustained Livelihood and Inclusion and Empowerment of Women.

As India gears up for the upcoming festive season, Flipkart is simplifying the process of donating by leveraging the power of technology to offer over 250 million of its users a seamless and convenient way to donate online for the benefit of the underserved. Millions of Flipkart customers will also be able to donate through SuperCoins, which is a seamless and easy way of donating through their loyalty currency. Giving back to communities has become more important than ever before, as millions of businesses and livelihoods have been severely impacted by the pandemic. As the current health crisis has laid emphasis on social inequality, Flipkart through its wide reach and accessibility, will enable stakeholders to come forward and contribute to rebuilding the communities that have been disrupted in these unprecedented times.

Mahesh Pratap Singh, Head – Sustainability & Social Responsibility, Flipkart, said “At Flipkart, we believe in creating positive impact with everything we do. Our goal this festive season is to encourage giving to worthy causes and to try and serve communities that have been affected by the pandemic. We aim to inspire our ecosystem of consumers, employees and sellers to extend their support to the causes they support through the means of our platform.”

E R Ashok Kumar, President, GiveIndia, said “We really value everything that the Flipkart community brings to the giving ecosystem. It is through partnerships with platforms like this that we will get closer to our vision of seeing every Indian giving back to society - now, with the pandemic, more important than ever. Happy DaanUtsav everyone!”

Flipkart had recently partnered with GiveIndia to raise funds amounting to ₹4 crores for the organisation’s Covid Response Fund. Flipkart also utilised its SuperCoins programme (a reward programme), and enabled consumers to donate over 4 lakh masks to frontline workers and marginalised communities, and nearly 8 lakh meals to the poorest of the poor.

Pushpa Aman Singh, CEO of GuideStar India and the Global Leader for GivingTuesday India, said, “It is very important to make every single person realise that she has the capacity to impact lives, no matter how much or how little they have. We are delighted that our partnership with Flipkart will connect millions of Indian with virtual opportunities to express their generosity.”

DaanUtsav is an annual festival that encourages selfless giving and celebrates generosity. What started with a handful of volunteers has now become a national phenomenon that takes place every year from October 2-8. GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement in 70+ countries that is anchored in India by GuideStar India as a DaanUtsav celebration. Flipkart had previously partnered with DaanUtsav and Giving Tuesday India and supported various causes ranging across sustainability, women empowerment, animal welfare, and equality for the differently-abled.