2Sustain

Last week, Supervalu announced that it will transition 40 more stores to zero waste operations during the company’s current fiscal year, which ends on February 29, 2012.

Supervalu, which is among the country’s largest grocery chains, operates about 4300 stores, with approximately 140,000 employees and annual sales of some $38 billion. The company gained recognition last November when it became the first retailer to achieve zero waste classification at two of its Albertsons grocery stores. The success of the pilot zero waste program at the two stores in Santa Barbara, CA, convinced management to expand the initiative this year.

To achieve zero waste recognition, stores must divert at least 90 percent of all waste from landfills — a feat accomplished through increased associate engagement, as well as through adoption of these specific initiatives: (more…)

New research from the Network for Business Sustainability confirms what I have been I have been saying for years: It’s time for executives and procurement professionals to rethink their current supply chain strategy and adopt a more proactive and responsible approach.

The study, which reviewed 25 years’ worth of academic and industry research, found that ensuring safe, supportive working conditions is the top issue for companies that buy from suppliers in other countries. Unfortunately, though, it also revealed that many of the companies trying to improve working conditions and environmental impacts in their supply chains are going about it the wrong way.
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Could wind power help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry?

Cargill wants to find out. The company has partnered with Hamburg-based SkySails to use innovative kite technology to help power large shipping vessels.

According to a press release, next December Cargill will install a 320m2 SkySails kite on a handysize vessel of between 25,000 and 30,000 deadweight tonnes, which the company has on long-term charter. Reportedly, this will then be the largest-ever vessel propelled by a kite.

SkySails estimates that the kite, which flies ahead of the vessel, can generate enough propulsion to reduce consumption of bunker fuel by up to 35 percent in ideal sailing conditions. The kite functions at a height of between 100 to 420 meters and flies in a figure-eight formation, steered by an automatic control system.

G.J. van den Akker, head of Cargill’s ocean transportation business, called the SkySail’s project “a meaningful first step” towards driving environmental best practice within the shipping industry. (more…)

The US Postal Service is starting to see significant cost savings from its green initiatives.

For example, the Postal Service says its “Lean Green Teams” reduced energy, water, solid waste to landfills and petroleum fuel use last year, saving the agency more than $5 million in 2010 alone. These teams also helped recycle more than 222,000 tons of material — an increase of nearly 8,000 tons over the prior year — which generated $13 million in revenue, and saved an additional $9.1 million in landfill fees.

According to the Postal Service, these employee green teams are helping mesh low-cost and no-cost sustainable practices with performance management systems to help the agency meet its specific sustainability goals by the target date in 2015. These goals include reducing

• facility energy use 30 percent,
• water use 10 percent,
• petroleum fuel use 20 percent, and
• landfill waste 50 percent. (more…)

More and more businesses are working closely with suppliers to improve their sustainable practices.

And now, results of a new study reveal that this type of collaboration can significantly improve the bottom line.

According to The Carbon Disclosure Project 2011 Supply Chain Report, produced by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, a whopping 86 percent of the companies surveyed saw commercial benefits from working closely with suppliers to improve performance and mutual return on investment –that’s up from 46 percent in 2009.

PepsiCo, for example, has uncovered more than $60 million in energy savings opportunities and a 16 percent reduction in per-unit energy use across its beverage plants, as a result of its carbon management strategy and proprietary energy assessment tool.

“With a robust strategy and proven benchmarks in place, PepsiCo set out to engage and educate suppliers about potential opportunities to innovate their own operations,” said Walter Todd, Vice-President of Operations, PepsiCo UK & Ireland. “By providing suppliers access to the same energy assessment tools we use in our own operations, we’ve seen mutual return on investment.”

The study, which looked at climate change actions and performance of 57 leading global companies and 1,000 of their suppliers across a broad cross-section of industries, also found that:
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