Whenever we think of Supply Chain what comes to mind is Efficiency, Costs, Responsiveness, Customer Service. While these topics will continue to keep Supply Chain managers busy, what is it that will figure prominently in the tomorrow's Supply Chain vision and strategy statements.
According to few experts, the next evolution will be "Green Supply Chain". With crude having crossed USD 100 mark and pressure to reduce carbon emission, it is the thing that will catch the management attention in every company that is involved with transportation of goods. In a country like India, the scope to reduce emission by Logistics industry is huge. According to one estimate Indian outsourced logistics industry is slated to grow at CAGR of over 16% between 2007-10. There are about 3 million trucks on Indian roads, consuming almost 20 million liters of diesel every day and emitting about 500,000 of CO emission. We all know about the condition of roads as well as of trucks plying on these roads. The laws made to regulate the life of trucks & load carrying capacity for each kind of trucks have met with little success. Overloaded trucks on the highways is a common scene & helping only to fill pockets of few. However if the road conditions improve & laws are enforced properly, the CO emission should come down by 30-40%.
According to few experts, the next evolution will be "Green Supply Chain". With crude having crossed USD 100 mark and pressure to reduce carbon emission, it is the thing that will catch the management attention in every company that is involved with transportation of goods. In a country like India, the scope to reduce emission by Logistics industry is huge. According to one estimate Indian outsourced logistics industry is slated to grow at CAGR of over 16% between 2007-10. There are about 3 million trucks on Indian roads, consuming almost 20 million liters of diesel every day and emitting about 500,000 of CO emission. We all know about the condition of roads as well as of trucks plying on these roads. The laws made to regulate the life of trucks & load carrying capacity for each kind of trucks have met with little success. Overloaded trucks on the highways is a common scene & helping only to fill pockets of few. However if the road conditions improve & laws are enforced properly, the CO emission should come down by 30-40%.
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We have not seen any CNG trucks despite success of CNG based public transportation in Delhi. Compared to diesel trucks the carbon emission from CNG trucks is 75% lower. Government should make plans to make CNG available widely & incentivize CNG based trucks.
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Another area where logistics companies can bring down emission is through energy bills of their warehouses. A recent study conducted for a logistics service provider that operates 3 million sq feet of warehouse space, shells out Rs. 1.25 per sq ft per month. Energy audit of one of their warehouse showed that energy bill can be reduced by 25% by doing simple things like improving power factor, energy efficient lighting and improving efficiency of DG sets.
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Very soon many of the Supply Chain Managers will be grappling with these numbers along with their regular costs & efficiencies. Let us be all prepared for the Green Supply Chain.
2 comments:
Green supply chain ... has anyone estimated the impact of dedicated freight corridor on carbon emissions per ton-km?
Understand that Cranefield university has done some work on this.
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