Equans: Delivering 13,000 sustainable Christmas gifts to individual UK addresses
Social Supermarket delivered 13,000 sustainable corporate Christmas gifts to individual home addresses across the UK for Equans, on time, with verified social impact built into every box.
Equans UK & Ireland had a simple wish: get 13,000 Christmas gifts onto 13,000 doorsteps across the UK, on time, with real social impact built into every box. Most merch suppliers hear “13,000 individual home addresses” and quietly start sweating. We heard a brief worth doing properly.
The brief: corporate Christmas gifts to 13,000 doorsteps, no margin for error
The challenge. Deliver 13,000 bespoke gift boxes to individual home addresses across the UK, on time, at scale, with genuine social impact in every product. No spray-and-pray. No “close enough.”
The requirement. Products with employment impact you could actually verify, carbon calculated and offset, and a way to tell recipients the story behind what they were holding.
The timeline. Christmas 2022, every one of the 13,000 addresses, no room for the kind of logistical slip that turns a thank-you into an apology.
Most teams we speak to are wrestling with the same thing: stock split across offices and home workers, customs and delivery headaches, and a calendar that fills up faster than anyone can plan for. Thousands of separate addresses is exactly where that pressure shows. So we built the plan around it rather than hoping it would behave.
What Social Supermarket did
Every box held 11 food and drink items from UK social enterprises, and every item carried a story. Tea blended by people who came to the UK as refugees and are rebuilding their lives here. Gingerbread baked by women who had been shut out of work and were finally getting back into it. We didn’t bury that in the small print. A seeded impact card in every box told recipients who made their gift and why it mattered, then went into the ground to grow wildflowers instead of into the bin.
The carbon? We calculated emissions across production and delivery, then offset every gram through a UN-certified project. Neutral, evidenced, and not just asserted because it sounds nice on a slide.
This is what sustainable corporate gifting looks like when it is doing real work: a supplier behind every product, an impact you can name, and a recipient who knows it.
Delivering over 13,000 parcels across the UK can be a challenge but this was the smoothest delivery experience we have had to date.” – Equans UK & Ireland
The social impact
- 56 hours of paid work created for refugees and people facing disadvantage
- 8 tonnes of Fairtrade chocolate sourced, putting money back into farming communities
- 13,000 home deliveries completed on time, zero errors
- Every gram of carbon offset through a UN-certified environmental project
- Recipients who actually read the story behind their gift, thanks to a seeded impact card in every box
What makes a corporate Christmas gift sustainable?
A sustainable corporate Christmas gift is one where the product, the people who made it, and the delivery all stand up to scrutiny: sourced from social enterprises with verifiable employment impact, packaged plastic-free, and carbon-calculated rather than vaguely “green.” For Equans, that meant 11 items per box from UK social enterprises, a seeded plantable impact card, and every gram of carbon offset through a UN-certified project.
Can you send corporate gifts to thousands of home addresses at once?
Yes. Social Supermarket delivers individually addressed corporate gifts at scale across the UK, including to remote and hybrid teams. For Equans we shipped 13,000 separate home deliveries for Christmas 2022 with zero errors. The trick is planning the logistics in from day one rather than treating thousands of addresses as an afterthought.
FAQ
What is sustainable corporate gifting?
Sustainable corporate gifting is the practice of choosing gifts with a measurable social and environmental benefit, from social enterprise suppliers, with plastic-free packaging and offset or low carbon delivery, instead of disposable promotional items.
How do you send corporate Christmas gifts to home and hybrid workers?
You use a supplier that can manage individual addresses at volume, hold the stock, and handle delivery to every doorstep. Social Supermarket delivered 13,000 individually addressed boxes for Equans with no errors.
Can corporate gifts have measurable social impact?
Yes. Impact is measurable when it is tied to real suppliers and verified outcomes, such as hours of fair-wage employment created or tonnes of Fairtrade produce sourced, rather than a general claim about doing good.
How far ahead should you plan corporate Christmas gifts?
The earlier the better, especially for large or individually addressed orders. Early planning is what removes the last-minute scramble and the risk of stock running out mid-campaign.
Planning Christmas for a team the size of a small town? Let’s make sure not one gift ends up in the bin.
Ditch the disposable.
Get in touch | socialsupermarket.org
