Do you think Going Green is an additional expense? Well its not. Wal-Mart, the global leaders in the retail industry, have over 200 million customer transactions per week which have increased its sales to $ 401 billion despite having adopted a go green approach in its business practice last year.
A recent 3PL study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that 36% of the respondents from the Asia Pacific agree that a green supply chain is very important today and 72% of them believe it will be very important in the future Interestingly almost in all regions across the world, 75% of the respondents agree that a sustainable supply chain becomes a future supply chain initiative among companies. Another study conducted by Supply Chain Management Review says that more than 50 percent of the respondents said they have a documented corporate sustainability plan, and about the same number said their company has a senior executive, often a vice president, dedicated to sustainability in action level. Although the results were encouraging, if we look at the implementation level and return on investment view, many companies are just starting to get involved in sustainability.
In today’s global supply chain network, organizations are looking at moving closer to market particularly towards emerging markets so as to increase the profit. Thus, they try to relocate either their manufacturing facility or their distribution centers. In a globally integrated supply chain environment, manufacturing and logistics account for major emissions. In particular, industrial manufacturing, which accounts for about 80% of the industrial energy consumption, contributes about 80% of the industrial energy-related carbon emissions. Of these, the petroleum, chemicals, and iron and steel industries produce nearly 60% of the total energy-related carbon emissions from manufacturing. The logistics sector accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in which the majority of the emissions are from road transport (76%) and aviation (12%).
For years the logistics industry had showcased enormous growth which also caused rising green gas emission which is seen as the prime cause for global warming. Companies should start focusing ecological responsibility by using energy as efficiently as possible. Going green is not a choice any more it is our responsibility hence it is very important that we do little things in our daily life like reduce, reuse and recycle. While in business we should be looking for more optimized methods which helps in more cost efficient while being a eco friendly organization. Existing business models are now being modified to incorporate green with carbon emission reduction at its core.