2Sustain

Meeting new 2025 CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards will require significant materials innovation, according to a recent survey conducted by WardsAuto and DuPont Automotive in late July.

The survey polled more than 1,000 subscribers to the industry publication WardsAuto and was conducted just before the Obama administration’s originally proposed 2025 fleet average of 56.2 mpg (4.1 L/100 km) was negotiated to 54.5 mpg (4.3 L/100 km).

Among the key findings: (more…)

FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. and the world’s largest express transportation company, is expanding its fleet of fuel efficient vehicles.

This summer, FedEx Express will:

• place 24 new all-electric vehicles into service, adding three new cities and more than doubling its fleet to 43 all-electric vehicles while growing the diversity of suppliers it uses for electric vehicles,

• add more hybrid-electrics,

• pilot composite vehicles made from recycled rubber material, resin, fiberglass and poly core and

• upgrade more than a tenth of its conventional vehicle fleet to more energy-efficient vehicles.

The 24 new all-electric vehicles will be analyzed to further our understanding of all-electric technology and its demands on the energy grid. For example: (more…)

News about potential future guidelines to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has all of us wondering how supply chain operations will be changing in the not-too-distant future.

First, the EPA made headlines with its proposed declaration that greenhouses gases represent a health danger. Then, last week U.S. Representatives Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) introduced the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which if passed, would have a significant impact on basic supply chain, transportation, and logistics practices.

If you’re starting to think about how your supply chain is going to respond to new legislation like this (and I hope you are), take a minute to check out Logistics Management for Jeff Berman’s latest article, “Green Logistics: Proposed Changes in Emissions Reduction Could Have Lasting Effect on Supply Chain Operations.”

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How do you shop for books, CDs, or other small household items? Do you like to get in your car and drive to the store, or do you prefer to shop online? Do you think one method is better for the environment than the other? Are your customers concerned with the carbon footprints of their shopping habits?

If you’re wondering about these types of green logistics questions, I suggest you check out a new report by researchers at the Logistics Research Centre, School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh.

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