company has pledged to encourage the rest of its suppliers to respond to
their new program. One means of doing this entails working more closely with
them, as well as with organizations such as the Carbon Disclosure Program.
The company’s Chief Merchandising Officer said, “This is an opportunity to
spur innovation and efficiency throughout our supply chain that will not only
help protect the environment but save people money at the same time.”
If other companies in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry can
implement likeminded energy-reduction policies, especially those businesses
with supply networks on the scale of Wal-Mart’s, proliferating efficiency stan-
dards and product innovation across multiple industries becomes an even
greater possibility.
Sun Microsystems
One of the ways that Sun has responded to the public clamor for a deepened
shade of green is to decrease the number of distribution centers in its supply
chain. To do this, it has simply increased the amount of finished product that
ships directly to customers. The resulting benefits are clear — less energy,
less plastic and paper, and less manpower. Savings from these cuts go towards
improving other green processes, such as, for example, the means by which
they disperse information to partners and customers. By using the Internet to
communicate, Sun has reduced paper costs from $10 million to $1 million and
saved two million pounds of paper each year. That’s nearly 6,000 trees still out
there converting carbon dioxide to oxygen for the rest of us!
Timberland
According to Gary Smith, Timberland’s senior vice president of global supply
chain, the outdoor clothing and shoe company has implemented a sustain-
ability agenda that accounts for the use of energy, materials, chemical, and
systems across its supply chain. Recently, for example, it installed a wind
tower at one of its sites. Elsewhere, it has implemented solar panels to heat
the water used to steam materials in its hand-sewn shoes. About one-third of
the company’s product line (over 10 million pairs of shoes) now incorporates
water-based adhesives. Just four years ago that number was nearly zero. It is
also taking measures to replace its polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a plastic consid-
ered detrimental to public health and the environment, with greener materi-
als by 2008.
DHL
DHL’s director of environmental strategies and policies, Winfried Haeser, says
the company sees reliance on fossil fuels and their damage to the environ-
ment as a challenge to be addressed on a global scale. One of the ways it has
reduced its resource expenditure was to ensure the highest possible loading
cycles are matched with the shortest possible distances traveled by its vehi-
cles, using internal optimization software to map out the best delivery routes.
Consequently, DHL has cut delivery mileage by 14 percent since 2001 and
added more than 20,000 tons of airfreight capacity without the need for addi-
tional flights. The company is also searching out alternative fuel technology,