Advanced Solutions in Logistics, Inc.

Company > Hot Topics: Green Footprint

How Many Companies are Managing Their Green Footprint? A very small number, Accenture says.

 

Only about 10 percent of the companies recently surveyd by Accenture are actively managing the carbon footprint of their suply chains. Only 37% of Supply Chain executives are measuring the levels of carbon emissions in their networks.

However, there is increased activity. 86% of the surveyed executives have undertaken at least one green initiative and 38% have applied green techniques to their transportation fleets.

The problem with these implementations is that most of the carbon reduction solutions are being undertaken without any understanding of their carbon footprint and therefore have no measurements in place to evaluate their impact on emissions.

The five most promising opportunities, in terms of abatement potential and implementation feasibility in megatons of CO2 per year, are:

  • Clean vehicle technologies - 175 megatons
  • Slowing down the Supply Chain - 171 megatons
  • New initiatives on package design - 132 megatons
  • Optimizing networks - 124 megatons
  • Energy efficient buildings - 93 megatons

Reommended actions on the logistics side include the adoption of new energy-efficient technologies, improved training, modal switches, greater use of recycling, development of home-delivery offerings and promotion of carbon offsetting for shipments.

Recommendations for shippers and buyers include gaining a better understanding of their carbon impacot, manufacutring through alternative sourcing, reduction of packaging materials, increased usage of multi-use packaging, increased load sharing, and acquistion of better auditing tools to monitor progress against goals.

All of these actions will not only have an impact on a company's carbon footprint and CO2 emissions but will also have a positive impact on a company's ROI.