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Canwest News Service
For most companies, a green business is less about meeting consumer demand than building a sustainable business with a strategy to thrive. Greening your supply chain to decrease carbon emissions and increase fuel efficiency can contribute to that ability to thrive. Following are some key strategies.
GREEN PACKAGING
Green packaging doesn't end with recycled boxes and biodegradable packing materials. It's also about minimizing damages that could trigger a return and, in turn, another shipment to provide a replacement, which burns more fuel and generates additional emissions. By using the right packaging, companies can greatly reduce damaged products and wasteful returns.
If you work with an outside shipping company, it may be able to help. For example, UPS operates a package lab near Chicago where engineers develop packaging solutions to help customers minimize damages to products ranging from skis to flat-screen televisions.
OPTIMIZING YOUR DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
According to a recent World Economic Forum report, the global transport and logistics industry accounts for 2,800 megatons of greenhouse gases. Designing a more efficient distribution network is the key to making a positive environmental impact and requires a delicate balance between cost, speed and environmental considerations. Depending on the proximity of your distribution centres relative distance to customers and retail centres, it could be beneficial to simplify your network and reduce the number of distribution centres overall.
In addition, different modes of transportation have different energy intensity and carbon-emission profiles. A company that is smart about using diverse modes — truck, rail, ocean and air — will lower its fuel consumption and emissions. For example, if your ground network is sufficiently extensive, express shipments can sometimes travel by truck rather than air, saving fuel and emissions. If you use an outside carrier, look for one with the modal flexibility to consolidate multiple international shipments for air and ocean freight.
PLAN YOUR ROUTE
Using technology or common sense to plan your delivery routes is another way to optimize your supply chain, or even to green your personal trips in the family vehicle.
Route-planning software can help your business improve efficiency, saving kilometres, fuel and emissions. For example, UPS has implemented several tools and procedures, collectively called Package Flow Technologies (PFT), to optimize delivery routes by doing things such as eliminating left turns. Since its deployment in 2004, PFT has shaved 161 million kilometres off UPS's already streamlined delivery routes, saved 45.5 million litres of gas, and reduced emissions by 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The savings last year alone were the equivalent of taking 5,300 delivery vehicles off the road.
SUPPLY CHAIN PARTNERS
Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) bear a great deal of responsibility when it comes to limiting your supply chain's impact on the environment, and you need to objectively evaluate your 3PLs in this area. Is your 3PL utilizing clean fuel technologies like electric, hybrid-electric, compressed and liquefied natural gas or propane? How does your 3PL evaluate its carbon footprint? Does it publish a sustainability report? Remember, you can't improve what you don't measure.
Partnering with the right carrier can help you reduce your carbon footprint without sacrificing the efficiency of your supply chain; in fact, it can provide significant positive business results.
Your supply chain is a great place to include effective green strategies and technologies. Incorporating some green techniques into your supply chain can help you curb your carbon emissions. Going green is essential to every business in today's world, and you're only as green as your supply chain.
