1.0 Executive Summary Climate change has been a major topic of debate in the UK over the recent years. The need to reduce the impact of CO2 and other Green House Gases (GHG) on the environment has pushed the UK Government to enact legislations (e.g. Climate Change Act 2008) and impose strict regulations on businesses to reduce emissions. These actions have forced businesses across a wide range of industrial sectors to rethink and rework their strategies of utilising energy, transport and land in an efficient manner, which in turn has lead to innovative and at the same time simple yet effective methods to reduce carbon emissions. The purpose of this report is to explain in brief to the Senior Management of a hypothetical supply chain company on how carbon emissions are being reduced. This report is structured in way to cover all areas of logistics management from sourcing of raw materials from suppliers to distribution of finished products to end customers. And it explains of how companies across different industrial sectors reduce their carbon emissions. 2.0 Suppliers: Collaborate for Carbon Cutting Companies are beginning to realise that every item they source from suppliers have a global environmental impact, and with careful sourcing they can reduce use of fossil fuels and in turn save money (Wisner et al,2009) . This has led to many companies having self-imposed commitments and long term strategies to protect the environment by forming strategic alliances with suppliers. But only a few are successful in achieving their objectives. A survey by Accenture, shows that only one in ten companies actively model their supply chain carbon footprints and have implemented successful sustainability initiatives (Accenture, 2009). Acco... ... middle of paper ... ...g carbon footprint into supply chain management: The case of Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) in the automobile industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 19(11), pp. 1216-1223. 7. MARKS AND SPENCER, 2011. How We Do Business Report 2010. United Kingdom: Marks and Spencer PLC. 8. MARKS AND SPENCER, 2013. How We Do Business Report 2012. United Kingdom: Marks and Spencer. 9. SAINSBURY'S, 2012. Sainsbury's Corporate Responsbility Report 2011. United Kingdom: Sainsbury's. 10. SLACK, N. and LEWIS, M., 2011. Operations strategy [electronic book] / Nigel Slack, Michael Lewis. Harlow : Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2011; 3rd ed. pp92 11. WISNER, J.D., TAN, K. and LEONG, G.K., 2009. Principles of supply chain management : a balanced approach / Joel D. Wisner, Keah-Choon Tan, G. Keong Leong. Mason, OH : South-Western Cengage Learning, 2009; 2nd ed. pp 111-113,262
One thing is for sure, large number of companies are starting to face problems and trying to come up with solutions to this crisis. Many suggestions have been made towards companies and some include changing more environmental friendly supply chain. (Carbon dioxide supply chain reporting in a Swedish multinational corporation, 2010). Swedish multinational corporation Entra has stated the fact that there is a relationship between their costs and energy sourcing. Since they are sometimes supplier to their suppliers, the environment pushes Entra and all organizations to look into how they can influence their supply channels. BP Amoco as many other companies, have set a target on reducing Greenhouse gasses. One step that they took was...
your carbon footprint is to look closely at each product you use, and find a more carbon efficient version.
One of the most compelling and difficult environmental problems society is facing today is climate change. People do not realize how much the environment has changed for the worse in the last ten years, until they are told that the last two decades of the 20th century have been the hottest in the last 400 years, according to climate studies (Conserve Energy Future). Today the carbon dioxide levels have reached 396.81 parts per million (ppm). “Carbon dioxide (CO2) has also increased over the last 100 years-- from about 300 ppm to 370 ppm. Interestingly, the majority of these additions have occurred in the last 50 years, when temperature increases have been slowest” (geocraft). There are no known solutions yet to reverse these effects in the environment, however there are many things people can do to prevent it from increasing. By implementing a carbon tax the government can tax corporations on how much carbon they emit into the atmosphere. With the extra money from the tax, scientist can invest in alternative ways to reduce how much carbon is emitted. Reducing climate change is going to take years and so nothing is going to get fixed anytime soon, but meanwhile we can use that extra money to begin cleaning up the atmosphere. There are many ways to explain climate change, some say its due to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, others say it is the burning of the fossils fuels, some even say it’s the greenhouse gases. All of these sayings mean the exact same thing, no matter how one says it. I believe there are more convenient ways to solve climate change; and if the government would to implement a carbon tax on companies they will then be forced to re-evaluate all the carbon they emit to the environment and red...
Costco is mindful of its responsibilities as an environmental steward to manage their global operations in an energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly and sustainable manner. They established ten years ago a special department for Corporate Sustainability and Energy Department. It allowed them to develop actively, solutions for many aspects of their business related to sustainability such as seeking opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint, enhancing the warehouse energy management systems, refining their packaging design initiatives and further developing their recycling and waste stream management programs.
Increasing public interest for the natural world is driving business organizations to give careful consideration to their ecological footprint, not only in the commodities and services they offer, but also in the supply chain that conveys them. What initially began as a corporate image improvement strategy has developed into a business imperative and, in the most advanced organizations, a competitive advantage. In today’s global market, the expectations for business companies about greening supply chain are very great particularly the consumer electronics industries, thus, international business outfits are putting in lots of effort to ensure their supply chains are operating in a socially and ecologically responsible manner in order to remain competitive. A Company’s obligations toward environmental sustainability define its corporate image and relationships with clients, stakeholders, community groups, also influencing its profits in the long run. It is therefore of a great importance for ABC Inc. which has just stepped out of a major growth phase to green its operations and be more proactive in implementing extended producer responsibility (EPR) initiatives into order reduce its ecological footprint and at same time saving money.
An important movement has begun within the supply chain industries, due to anticipated new standard and regulations for carbon emissions. This creates both opportunities, and risks within the transportation and logistics industries. Instabilities within the supply and demand are focused determined by new and stricter regulations of carbon emissions, higher fuel prices, and client and consumer demand. These sectors often can influence the de-carbonization, in operations and through wider supply chain, process improvements. This can reduce costs, help to manage additional risks and promote new business growth.
As the Sustainability Leaders badge provides an incentive for manufactures who supply Walmart to become more environmentally friendly, Walmart has taken more direct approaches. As Walmart is the world’s largest grocery store, it has taken initiative in improving agricultural practices by their suppliers in the their supply chain. Walmart has collaborated with fifteen large suppliers that account for thirty percent of their food and beverage sales to implement farming practices that optimize fertilizer and crop rotations with the goal of reducing greenhouse gasses by 2.3 million metric tons (MMT) (“Sustainable”). Highlighted by Joel Makower, an expert on sustainable business and founder of GreenBiz, Walmart has reached their goal set in 2010 by cutting 20 MMT from their supply chain (Makower). Makower states: “Walmart’s sustainability initiatives are having a real impact, both on its operations and those of the companies in its supply chain, though some of that progress is offset by the company’s growth”
...and sustainable supply chain are the steps taken by the small and medium enterprises of the country as this leads to the effectiveness of the process. Looking and comparing the past data with the current we can reach to the conclusion that though the pace of implementing green strategies in manufacturing and supply chain is slow in developing countries but we have achieved certain mile stones in this. We need to take proper steps so as to decrease the cost and make the sustainable practices more effective.
“BT looked at the entire carbon footprint of its business, finding that emissions outside its own direct control counted for 92% of the total. And 64% of that impact was just in BT’s upstream supply chain.” – Carbon Trust
... and people. They can also consider reverse logistics as a method to keep and manage their brand reputations, to market their products as well as to obtain competitive benefits (Marien, 1998). It is critical for the major companies which lead the market to improve environmentally sustainable business since environmentally unkind products and materials would be detrimental to firms’ reputations and then could trigger a significant damage. The literature review shows that there are attempts to identify the factors driving reverse logistics strengthen. As a result, it is construed that there are three main reasons and they will signpost to find the objective of this dissertation. Based on these views, this dissertation will discuss and analysis the effect according to increase of importance of reverse logistics, focusing on supply chain in an automotive parts industry.
This report will discuss about how external environment affects Harrods’s modus-operandi and the appropriate marketing strategies that they have to apply in the future.
It is known that as an international society every individual needs to contribute to do their part to reduce their carbon footprint on the world. Individual people, farmers, business, and industries must to do their part to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in their daily routines to conserve our world for future generations to come.
Sustainable operation management is a management approach that involves planning, implementation and control of business operations that translate available resources into the required product or service. It is the management of business practices, traditions and operations to promote the highest level of efficiency, smooth workflow, and increased productivity in an organization. This management strategy ensures that the available labour force and materials are changed into products or services in a cost effective way to increase the company’s returns (Corbett, 2009). It also involves production waste management, food waste reduction, creating new opportunities, environment protection, and improving customer health. Sustainable operation management in the retail industry around the world has gained momentum in the recent years, in the face of customer pressure and media interest. It is particularly linked to the concepts of corporate social responsibility and global warming (Morrison, 2013).
However, A typical query proposed that environmental concerns are generally followed by massive upfront investments, which is likely to abate companies’ competitiveness (Mcguire, Sundgren, & Schneeweis, 1988). While in the automotive industry, several cost reduction ways can be brought about by environmental measures to offset, if not exceed, the aforementioned additional investments (Soloman & Hansen, 1985). Descriptive statistics in automotive industry indicated that eco-friendly CSR measures, such as energy-efficient technologies adopted in vehicle-assembly line, innovation for car recycling and dismantling, are believed to be conducive to cost reduction and profitability enhancement (Cortez & Nugroho, 2010). As a case in point, BMW (2014) claimed a cost saving of 15.8 million euros from resource-efficient production. On the other hand, a mounting number of legally binding environmental policies, which may lead to substantial taxation if companies are substandard, have been imposed on the automotive industry. Driven by regulations, automotive companies will tend to proactively improve their environmental performance for tax deductibility to reduce their capital expenditure (Hall, 2010). Despite additional investments required to concretize environmental concerns, these CSR measures can still benefit automotive companies by reducing substantial
Coyle, J., Langley, C., Gibson, B., Novack, R. and Bardi, E. (2008).Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective. 8th ed. Cengage Learning, p.366.