2Sustain

The logistics sector is an increasingly significant contributor to the global economy –and it’s also an increasingly significant consumer of fossil fuels.

To me, that indicates that logistics companies are facing considerable sustainability-related risks. Are there steps these companies can take to mitigate these risks while enhancing their competitiveness in today’s increasingly complex global business environment?

A new report from RBC and Supply Chain & Logistics Association Canada (SCL) takes a detailed look at that question and ultimately, concludes that environmental sustainability should be considered both a key issue and an important opportunity for Canada’s transportation and logistics companies.

According to the report, CEOs in the logistics sector need to grapple with five specific environmental challenges: (more…)

Late last month, UPS released the latest edition of its annual sustainability report, and once again, the company has managed to reduce the amount of fuel it’s using to deliver each package in the United States.

Interestingly, the company’s US package volume rose 1.8 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, and yet UPS reduced the amount of fuel consumed per package by 3.3 percent. The company attributed the improvement to:

• deploying the right vehicle on the right routes,
• using technology to minimize the miles driven and
• focusing on how behavior can affect fuel use.

All told, technology has enabled UPS to avoid driving more than 63.5 million miles in 2010 with an associated emissions avoidance of 68,000 metric tonnes. As remarkable as it sounds, UPS estimates that distance is the equivalent of 251,987 trips to the International Space Station.

How, exactly, has the company used technology to reduce fuel consumption? According to a press release, UPS has specifically improved: (more…)

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…)

Oil prices were volatile again last week, topping off at about $100 a barrel, and now there’s another new wrinkle that has traders and analysts scratching their heads: futures contracts for light, sweet crude and Brent crude differ by nearly $20 –an unprecedented gap for these contracts, which typically trade within $1 of each other.

Naturally, as consumers, we’re all feeling the pinch of rising gas prices every time we fill up at the pump.

But, what about the ripple effect of $100/barrel gasoline? How much do rising gas prices—and the tremendous volatility in the oil markets –affect everything else we buy?

As Michael Koploy rightly points out at his recent blog post, Gas Stats: How Rising Fuel Prices Affect Logistics, soaring energy prices impact other commodities, such as minerals, food, and consumer goods –even though this effect doesn’t typically get the press it deserves.

Koploy illustrates the direct correlation between the rise in energy prices and the (sometimes dramatic) increases in commodity prices with this infographic, revealing the trickle-down effect of rising gas prices, January 2010 vs. January 2011: (more…)