Got green? April 6, 2009
Posted by Meg Sewell in green supply chain.Tags: go green, Logistics Management, supply chain, sustainability
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While ‘going green‘ has been a popular topic amongst many supply chain professionals, recent reports seem to indicate that in reality, not many companies are actually initiating this effort. According to this article on the Logistics Management website, a recent survey conducted by Accenture found that only 10 percent of businesses out of 245 companies surveyed are “actively modeling” their supply chain carbon footprint.
John Wright, global director of Supply Chain Fulfillment at Accenture, believes that companies aren’t putting sustainability high enough on the priority list. And while the issue is somewhat complex as there are no global standards driving the issue, Wright theorizes that many businesses are too often using the lack of global standards as an “excuse” to not spend time and money on “going green.”
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While not as many companies have gone green as would be desired, there are still some companies that are proudly leading the movement. According to the survey, organizations that show top-quartile performance in both customer service and cost effectiveness are more than twice as likely to keep track of their supply chains and put green measures in place.
Businesses most ahead of the game in terms of green initiatives seem to be retailers. There were also a couple of promising numbers gathered from the survey. 38 percent of respondents said they have started at least one green initiative in their transport fleets, and 86 percent of the respondents have started at least one initiative in their warehouses, such as natural light, energy-efficient bulbs, and recycling.
How green is your company or supply chain? Do you consider yourselves ahead of the game or are you hoping for your business to take more initiative?
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Over the past few weeks, there have been plenty of headlines about potential new legislation regarding GHG emission reductions. Certainly, regulations like these will have a significant impact on supply chain management. Companies will have to consider innovative strategies, like shortening supply chains and implementing new technologies, in order to comply.
Thanks for the response, Tim! I found the article on your website, 2sustain.com, to be very interesting. I am excited for the possibility of future GHG emissions guidelines and am interested to see how this may impact the industry.
If this new legislation is passed, I’d love to hear from some of our blog readers about how their own supply chains have responded to these new guidelines.