Logistics Management

Dave Schneider

Sustainability. Being "Green" could make "Green"
February 19, 2008

Sustainability.

This is a hot topic this year. There were multiple presentations at the RILA (Retail Industry Leaders Association) Logistics Conference last week on the topic. RILA has created the RILA Retail Sustainability Initiative this year using two supporting consulting groups.  In September RILA is presenting an Environmental Sustainability & Compliance Conference.

The ongoing drum beat of Global Warming, Carbon Footprints, and Conservation. The pictures of drowning polar bears, of the pollution haze and reports of bad air quality in China. More and more focus on hybrid cars, alternative energy, wind power, nuclear power.  No difference of what your political bent is, it looks like this inconvenient truth and dare. If you don’t believe that there is global warming, then you are either insensitive, or an idiot. 

Here is a thought to think over. When there is an article in a motorcycle magazine about Hubert’s curve, talking how we have already passed peak oil production points, the heat is rather high and the hot air is flowing real good.

I am not an insensitive lout, nor am I an idiot. But I really do not buy into the global warming thing. See, I am old enough to remember hearing in my youth in the 1960’s that the world was going to starve to death because the population was growing so fast that all of the farm land would disappear. I remember in high school in the 1970’s hearing about how the earth was cooling off and that we would freeze to death. I also remember that we had holes in the ozone layer from the aerosol cans. I also remember that DDT made the shells of eagle eggs too thin and that the bald eagles were going to disappear. I remember all of these “chicken little sky is falling” scares that were based on some sort of scientific “proof” that something bad was happening to our environment and we, mankind, was all to blame.

Do you remember the cow farts? Remember how the methane gas was eating the ozone?

Remembering a very smart physicist, a fellow that did not take himself too serious, but did some really serious work, for every action there is a reaction. You burn a fuel; it creates heat and waste products. You eat beans, you create gas. You work out and run, you make your body stronger and you sweat. You split some atoms and you get a very powerful amount of energy.

While I not dancing the global warming panic dance, I do support some of the changes in human and corporate behavior that the panic dance is creating. More and more companies are starting to look at the waste that they create and are starting to think about what to do. Some of it is good business, and if you look back in time the behavior is nothing new, it now is more desirable since it is “green” and could keep the government form creating silly mandates that cause more harm than good.

What behavior? One item I can point to is the number of shippers that are looking at the empty miles that they have trucks moving. Nothing new, but there is more effort to get “green”, and because of higher fuel costs, there is another type of “green” that is creating some motivation. More shippers are collaborating, together with their carriers, to fill empty truck miles. They may hold up a flag and say it is to be “green” for the environment, but the real reason is to keep more “green” on the bottom line.

I had a conversation with someone at the CSCMP meeting in San Antonio in 2006 after the presentation on Hubert’s curve. In that conversation I pushed the point that “there is green to be made in being green.” My point was that forget all of the crazy ways to generate alternative energy, that the best way to be green today was to figure out ways to reduce what you use. Reduce what you use, and save money. Reduce what you use and save the planet.   Both motivations were valid, and both motivations were good.

At the RILA Logistics conference there was a presentation by Karl Feilder, the CEO of The Neutral Group, (the in-house carbon consultancy for DHL Logistics). There was some of the “sky is falling” parts of the presentation, but much of the “meat” of the presentation was solid information about how DHL was looking at the waste in their operations and how eliminating the waste, and looking at alternatives was both a “green” and a “$green$” success. (I suggest that you take a look at the web site, http://www.theneutralgroup.co.uk – it is very informative and will give you ideas on what your company can do).  In the Q&A period after the presentation someone asked about the tradeoff between the energy conservation and carbon reduction with the use of the compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) and the poison issues with the mercury that the lamps contain. Mr. Feilder dismissed the mercury issue, stating that it won’t be an issue when the climate is too hot to support us.

I don’t know about you, but it sounds like the cure is worse than the projected disease.  

Thoughts? What are some of the things that your companies are doing to be “green” and to bring in more green?

A final thought. Could we achieve environmental sustainability if we focused on the economic sustainability of the companies that we work for? If we work to sustain the company by eliminating waste and driving more profit to the bottom line, would we use less energy, create less carbon, create less “heat”, and save a polar bear or two from a swim?

Posted by Dave Schneider on February 19, 2008 | Comments (5)