Why Green Your Supply Chain?

Let's start by discussing the top line benefits. Of course we have to comply with all the environmental regulations and legislation. For any international organisation, with breadth and pace of new regulation it can be daunting in itself. But that's a given. It's something we have to do if we want to continue business. The issue is to create a flexible and adaptable supply chain that can react quickly and with a minimum of effort as the regulatory landscape changes.

Next there's the importance of green credentials for customers and employees. Especially in the retail and automotive industries, consumers have become much more proactive in including green criteria within their product selection process. Greening all parts of an organisation will help drive the value in its brand – and the supply chain has its role to play in that. But, if we're to be honest, only the enlightened few of company boards are going to OK a major supply chain programme based on top line benefits. There has to be a positive impact of the bottom line.

The results from early adopters of Green Supply Chain Management are showing just how impressive these benefits can be:

• A large international consumer electronics supplier automated its transactions and communication between itself, its suppliers and its customers. It has eliminated 1143 metric tons of paper, reduced energy consumption by 47,271 million BTU and saved hundreds of thousands of pounds annually
• A global automotive manufacturer reduced disposal costs by over £7 million by establishing a reusable container programme
• A utilities company saved over £1 million by streamlining its inventory process to reduce product obsolescence and disposal
• A manufacturer changed its logistics management process enabling it to save over £100,000 a year in a single distribution centre
• An electronics company has stated that it will grow its revenue stream from environmentally friendly products to over £10 billion by 2010