As
an environmental advocate, I was excited to participate in Innovate: A Ryder
Idea Exchange. The event offered me a chance to speak with transportation
executives at retail, consumer goods and food and beverage companies about
greening product distribution.
I
shared several examples of leading companies that are creating business value
today by leveraging a freight Freight Sustainabiiltysustainability
platform. Each company succeeded in
their efforts by taking a strategic, pragmatic approach to sustainability. This strategic approach is what the
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has dubbed, “The Green Freight Journey.”
Successful
companies start by taking the nebulous concept of sustainability and making it
mean something specific. For example: “We will use fuel more efficiently” or
“We will reduce our emissions per product moved.”
Organizations
that have succeeded in greening their freight logistics also use metrics to
track progress towards a goal, such as product moved per gallon of fuel
consumed or emissions per ton-mile.
Next,
companies use their metrics to evaluate the efficacy of a few specific
projects. Projects that deliver financial and environmental returns are scaled
up. Those that don’t are redesigned or scrapped.
Leaders
take their Green Freight Journey a step further by creating long-term
goals. This enables them to focus on
continuous improvement. By putting in
place strategies on how to meet long-term goals, companies can easily tease out
expensive, one-off projects that won’t help them meet those goals. They can, to
move past the “big shiny objects” – which might be good for a press release,
but it doesn’t move the needle on their metrics.
Ocean
Spray Cranberries is an example of a company that has found business value
through its Green Freight journey. The
organization made headlines last year by collaborating with a competitor to
share railcar space on one of their shipping routes. Last summer, Ocean Spray
hired an EDF Climate Corps fellow to further analyze the environmental impacts
created by the transportation of their products, both between facilities and to
customers. Through this effort, the company identified an opportunity to reduce
its total transportation emissions 10% by switching to intermodal
transportation in a few key routes.
To
help companies leverage the power of the Green Freight Journey, we created the
EDF Green Freight Handbook. It provides guidance on how to establish metrics
and measure program success; assess the best opportunities to drive down costs
and greenhouse gas emissions; and build internal support for initiatives.
Whether
you are well on your way or just starting out on your own Green Freight
Journey, there is business value to be created by moving freight more
efficiently.
Source:
http://blog.ryder.com/2014/12/set-freight-sustainability-effort-success/#sthash.HtQ2GeTe.dpuf