2Sustain

Last week, The Home Depot announced new targets for lowering energy use in U.S. stores and reducing GHG emissions in its domestic supply chain.

Since 2004, The Home Depot has reduced its U.S. stores’ energy per square foot consumption by 16 percent, and now –after a series of rather straightforward operational programs including the upgrading of store HVAC systems, aligning of stocking hours more closely with store operating hours, use of CFL bulbs and a switch to T5 lighting –the company’s U.S. store energy usage stands at 21 kWh per square foot.

Remarkably, The Home Depot estimates that over the past six years it has saved 2.6 billion kWh of energy —which is enough energy to power 203,000 homes for one year.

But, the company doesn’t want to stop there. The Home Depot believes it can reach 20 kWh per square foot of energy usage by 2015. How? According to a press release, the stores will continue to gain operational and energy efficiencies through: (more…)

Industries today are continuing to re-think and re-design products and processes for human health, environmental health and recyclability, according to MBDC (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC), a global consultancy helping clients create a positive footprint on the planet by implementing the Cradle to Cradle® framework.

The consultancy reached this conclusion after compiling a series of its recent milestones, such as: (more…)

Yesterday, Walmart announced a goal to eliminate 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its global supply chain by the end of 2015.

The footprint of Walmart’s global supply chain is many times larger than its operational footprint, and so it represents a much more significant opportunity to reduce emissions. In fact, the ambitious goal announced yesterday represents one and a half times the company’s estimated global carbon footprint growth over the next five years and is the equivalent of taking more than 3.8 million cars off the road for a year.

Walmart collaborated with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to develop this innovative approach which looks at the supply chain on a global scale. After all, as the EDF website says:

Walmart’s supply chain is where the action is. It’s the biggest possible lever that Walmart could bring to the table. Walmart will work with suppliers to reduce their emissions – which they otherwise might not do – resulting in positive ripple effects around the globe.

This new program to reduce GHGs has three main components: (more…)

The World Economic Forum’s Logistics & Transport Industry Group, supported by Accenture, has taken a significant environmental step by agreeing to standard guidelines for calculating consignment-level carbon emissions from logistics and shipping operations.

These new guidelines for consignment-level emissions reporting will enable logistics and transport companies to:

• Assess the carbon intensity of their operations

• Define carbon reduction strategies leading to energy efficiency gains and cost reductions

• Provide their customers with information on the carbon associated with shipping their products

• Enable product lifecycle emissions assessments and product carbon labeling

And, ultimately, that will drive carbon efficiency in the freight and logistics sector –which in turn, will have a significant impact on global supply chains.

According to Jonathan Wright, senior executive in Accenture’s Supply Chain Management practice, the new carbon measurement and reporting approach will enable the logistics industry to better meet customer demands. (more…)

More than half of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) supply chain members expect to deselect suppliers in the future for failing to meet carbon management criteria, according to a new CDP report.

The second annual CDP Supply Chain Report, produced by A.T. Kearney, summarizes climate change information from 710 suppliers, and it shows that carbon management is becoming an increasingly fundamental component of supply chain strategy for the 44 CDP supply chain member companies –including global corporations such as Dell, Juniper Networks, National Grid, PepsiCo and Reckitt Benckiser.

Specifically, the report found that: (more…)