Green Supply Chains Achieve Positive Results

By Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2010-08-20

Going green is all the rage these days, with many environmentalists indicating that the planet will soon be a much less nice and hospitable place if the current pace of resource use and pollution is continued. But it's been proven that there are also solid financial reasons to make supply chains more green.

Consider the subject of saving gas. It means exhaust fumes won't dirty the air, but also means companies will spend less on fuel. As for how to achieve this goal, FedEx and UPS made sure their drivers waste less time in traffic by plotting out more efficient routes and asking them not to make left turns.

Or it's sometimes possible to make shipping containers lighter, perhaps increasing the speed at which trucks can be loaded and unloaded and decreasing the amount of weight they have to lug around.

John F. Wasik recently wrote, "Part of Wal-Mart's sustainability program, for example, calls for suppliers to ‘reduce packaging by 5% by 2013.' Smaller packages mean more units per cargo carrier, which means fewer cargo carriers. The company estimates it will save 667,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released and 66.7 million gallons of diesel fuel."

And many other approaches to conserving energy and cutting pollutions have payoffs like this, too. It's just a matter of finding them, and then they can even act as marketing advantages.

Wasik concluded, "Pressured by a need to cut costs in a slack economy and conform with tougher European standards, corporate environmentalism is still catching on - even if Washington can't seem to provide fertilizer for this growing movement."

About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.