Green Logistics

This paper explores the concept of green logistics development as a solution to the environmental issues that the traditional supply chains have caused. Achieving sustainable economic and environmental development is dependent on sound strategies and initiatives that can alleviate the negative externalities responsible for degradation and adverse climatic changes witnessed in different parts of the world. Carbon dioxide emissions have been steadily rising over time due to logistical operations carried out by firms (Dasaklis & Pappis, 2013). The most notable contributor of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere is the road transportation vehicles. High use and over-dependence on non-renewable energy, traffic congestion, carbon dioxide emissions, and accidents are the main problems that countries grapple with today (Angheluta & Costea, 2011). Green logistics development is a concept that provides cheap methods that can replace the traditional supply chains with the goal of protecting the environment against the adverse effects of climate change and initiate sustainable development. New green strategies that provide solutions without putting future lives in jeopardy is built on the previously suggested initiatives by Tamulis, Guzavius, and Algiryt (2012). The authors believe that the use of clean vehicles, multimodal shipment, freight consolidation, and home deliveries could ease the supply chain’s adverse impacts. The author of this document believes that investment in solar-powered engines, redesigning roads, and subcontracting carbon offsetting companies are the best practices for sustainable development.

Green Logistics Development

Introduction

Logistics describes the integrated management of operations needed to move merchandise in the supply chains. This process starts with collecting raw material, production, distribution, and finally consumption. The logistical activities are inventory organization, material handling, commodity storage, and freight transportation. The big concern is that the environment has suffered negative effects from logistical operations. The issues of increased environmental degradation and adverse climatic conditions have been partly due to irresponsible company supply chain activities. These negative impacts include traffic congestions, the concentration of greenhouse gasses, noise and air pollution, and accidents (Dasaklis & Pappis, 2013). Roads transport has been the main preference for most companies. As such, massive carbon emissions into the atmosphere can be attributed to the increased logistical activities by firms as they distribute their goods. Businesses complete their production cycles when the final products are circulated to supermarkets and other dropping points. Given this, transportation occupies a central place in business activities and plays a vital role in ensuring that companies avail their products to the markets and the consumers. New initiatives in supply chains must, therefore, strike a balance between the economic development of a firm and the environmental interests. Considering this fact and the urgent need to find lasting solutions to the negative externalities, a re-examination of supply chain operations and the transport infrastructure is inevitable. Such initiatives will ensure a sustainable equilibrium between environmental protection concerns and socio-economic objectives. This paper focuses on the efforts of green logistics and provides new strategies that can help eliminate negative environmental impacts. The aim will be to find inexpensive supply chain alternatives that do not put pressure on non-renewable energy sources and remain environmentally friendly and responsible.

Problem Statement

Companies’ logistical operations have been responsible for the most adverse effects on the climate and the environment. The firms’ supply chains operations have hampered efforts to protect the environment and minimize pollution, in addition to overexploiting the scarce resources. The pressure is steadily mounting on industrial stakeholders to adopt new green strategies that are environmentally responsible and encourage sustainable development. The steps necessary to achieve sustainable development include reducing the amount of emitted carbon dioxide by freights transportation and easing traffic overcrowding responsible for noise and air pollution. As such, the primary task is to develop green strategies to put into consideration, taking into account both environmental protection concerns and profit maximization.

Research Question

What logistical and supply chain strategies can best alleviate the negative externalities occasioned by the traditional supply chains so as to achieve sustainable economic and environmental development?

Definition of Terms

Supply chains – Defines the processes that take place during the production and distribution phases of a product (Christopher, 2016).

Negative externalities – Describes a cost incurred by a third party due to an economic transaction. Consumers and producers are the second and first parties respectively. Costs suffered by resources or other individuals become negative externality.

Sustainable development – refers to economic development that does not exhaust natural resources.

Literature Review

Freight transportation is responsible for a significant proportion of global carbon emissions. Freight transport accounts for almost 8% of global energy-related greenhouse gasses (Ittmann, n.d.). This assertion suggests that adopting environmentally friendly and responsible supply chain methods can reduce emissions by a significant percentage. Several firms have implemented various initiatives in a bid to eliminate operations that are detrimental to the environment. Such strategies included green supply chains (GSC). GSC was considered a significant strategy that helped to reduce the impact traditional logistics had on the environment. This green practice incorporated several activities including green procurement, logistics from processors to customers (Lee, 2008). According to the author, the green supply chains is a life-cycle that attempts to eliminate the negative externalities and can only be completed if all the cycle components are present. The components include suppliers from small and medium-sized businesses.

The concepts of green logistics and sustainability are multi-facet (A Focus on Sustainable Supply Chains and Green Logistics, 2015); therefore they require the interaction of various factors and participation of stakeholders. Green logistics is a function of sustainable development. This kind of development has fundamental pillars that include the environment, economy, and society (Seroka-Stolka, 2014). This implies that maximum gains in development can only be achieved if the factors of the model are at their optimum levels. As such, society is required to remain active, the economy must be kept vibrant, and environmental protection concerns must be put into consideration. The primary agenda of green logistics is to offset the negative impacts and removal of over-dependence on non-renewable sources. Given this, the relationship between the factors is a complex one. Today, companies have to consider environmental issues as a cost factor unlike in the past when profit maximization guided every operation. Logistics consisted of information gathering and management, materials handling, warehousing, packaging, and freight transportation (Seroka-Stolka, 2014). These activities centered on customer satisfaction.

Several companies place their focus on profit maximization. However, they fail to adopt processes that can enable them to meet this priority while still conserving the quality of the environment (Thomas, 2013). Various measures have been put in place to curb the negative externalities occasioned by traditional supply chains. Initially, they included defined standards of emissions from heavy-duty diesel locomotives. The inclusion of environmental supervision in supply chain management is known as green supply chain management and is also a critical aspect of green logistics (Ittmann, n.d.). However, setting the standards alone was not enough to curb the negative impacts. The success of green logistics depends on several other factors such as regulatory policies, compatibility of the initiatives, assistance from different authorities, and dynamic human resource (Lin & Ho, 2010). The interaction of these factors alongside the three development pillars – society, environment, and economy – create favorable conditions that allow green logistics to have a positive influence on sustainable development (Ping, 2009). Environmental protection plays a critical role in realizing the development agenda. Therefore, sustainable development has been elusive in most parts of the world due to the constant damages it causes as a result of the failure to implement models of green environmental protection initiatives (El-Berishy & Scholz, 2016).

Execution of go-green logistics operations holds the key to the reduction of greenhouse gasses and the attainment of economic and environmental development. However, several challenges exist. They include the failure of consumers to take an interest in transportation processes, traffic congestions, and various forms of pollution caused by supply chains. The implementation of green initiatives is critical and enables the synchronization of environmentally friendly logistical structures and transport efficiency (Angheluta & Costea, 2011). This is necessary since the present logistical structures have numerous negative impacts on the environment. Angheluta and Costea, (2011) claim that environmental costs are externalized and that Non-Governmental Organizations pressure local communities to invest in the ecologically friendly landscape. The authors also believe that most companies today lack a willingness to develop critical innovations and are mostly dominated by a traditional approach to the initiatives of green supply chains.

The European Union requires its members to improve transportation system efficiency by reducing its adverse impacts on the environment, increase road safety, and create favorable labor conditions. Given this, the implementation of green logistics initiatives acquires first actuality over EU jurisdiction. Green logistics as a concept is highly correlated with the sustainable development policy in the transportation segment of the economy (Vasiliauskas, Zinkeviciute & Simonyte, 2013). According to McKinnon et al. (2010), this concept is both environmentally and socially friendly, in addition to being economically functional. The significance of green logistics is discussed at national, regional, and global levels.

Logistics is a significant function of the contemporary transport system. The traditional logistics sought to establish a forward distribution system. This forward delivery included inventory management, packaging, and warehousing from the producer’s point to the customers’ point. Environmental considerations created a recycling and disposal market. This led to the establishment of a new subsector called green logistics. The inclusion of logistics into recycling and waste material management including hazardous goods and toxic substances became a central new market. Reverse distribution is an embedded practice and conducted continuously where the distributor or manufacturer assumes the delivery responsibilities of new products and their return. This implies that there are environmental protection considerations in the entire life cycle process of a commodity from production to distribution, to consumption, and finally to disposal. A good example would be automobile manufacturer BMW‘s initiative to design a vehicle with entirely recyclable parts (Saroha, 2014).

Sustainable logistics

Discussion about Green Logistics Lessons

Rodrigue, Slack, and Comtois (2016) believe that evidence of increased supply chain performance due to the implementation of green logistics strategies exist. This is because greenness favors an incorporated perspective on supply chain management. Logistical operations actors tend to be biased and perceive the green logistics concept as a tool for cost savings as they evade external cost issues. Reducing waste and packaging is a major environmental priority for many companies. The increase in the prices of energy confers extra incentives for supply chain administrators to advance upon logistics and will similarly push emissions and energy at the front stage. Such observations lend credence to the paradoxical association between the environment and logistics in which cost reduction does not substantially eliminate or decrease negative externalities on the environment. By assuming substantial environmental concerns such as the depletion of natural resources, traffic congestion, and pollution, implies that the logistics industry is not as green as it is perceived. The concept of green logistics is still an indirect result of strategies and policies whose goals include supply chain reliability, efficiency, and cost improvement. A critical aspect of ecological friendly freight distribution puts significant emphasis on city logistics where freight distribution operations happen, and substantial activities of reverse logistics. The driving force is still not issues directly linked to the environment but factors related to information technologies, warehousing, reliability, time problems, and cost.

The commerce sector is known to be responsible for executing the tenants of green logistics initiatives. Most stakeholders believe that applying private-public partnership principles and including all parties can increase its success and the benefits. Nonetheless, the application of green logistics involves the ability to manage activities and improve competitive capacity according to social, environmental and economic factors.

New green logistics solutions

Green logistics places an emphasis on the use of friendly transportation modes that can save on costs and lead to minimizing adverse environmental effects. This concept concentrates on the supply chain forward movement with the primary aim of reducing the over-consumption of non-renewable energy sources and the production of waste materials hazardous to the environment. Previous research and applications of green logistics initiatives include the use of clean trucks, multimodal shipment, freight consolidation, and home delivery. These practices embrace principles of green logistics since they endeavor to reduce traffic congestion which consequently will check pollution and emissions of greenhouse gasses. However, it is clear that they do not eliminate these problems in any significant way. Freight consolidation and multimodal shipments are a good way of ensuring that there is a maximum distribution at a minimal cost, but emissions will continue to be a problem, even if at reduced scales. Given this, it is appropriate to find other green strategies that work to alleviate dependence on nonrenewable resources, traffic congestions, and emissions of greenhouse gasses.

The solutions suggested in this document include the incorporation of green energy powered engines in the supply chains, integrating carbon offsetting companies such as the GreenFleet into the supply chain operations, and re-designing the road infrastructure to allow freight transportation have their independent lanes. These green logistical initiatives will ensure that carbon emissions, traffic congestions, and over-reliance on nonrenewable natural resources find permanent solutions. Companies should consider investing in and using trucks with engines that can utilize solar power. This way, carbon dioxide will be reduced by significant amounts. Firms will achieve the objective of operation at minimal costs and improve on their profit maximization since solar energy can be obtained for free. Several vehicle models that convert solar energy are already in the market (Parkinson, 2016). The issue will be to have transportation methods that conform to similar technology. The carbon offsetting companies are responsible for removing emitted carbon dioxide at some fee. Integrating their services into the firm’s supply chains and meeting their costs will ensure that the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are kept to a minimum. These companies have several ways to achieve the carbon removal objectives including planting trees that absorb the gasses. The fees they charge for such services are manageable and mostly remain within the limits that will allow profit maximization for the manufacturing companies. For instance, Greenfleet Company costs $12.5 per 1 ton of CO2 gas it offsets from the atmosphere (Mygreenlife, 2015). Most air pollution occurs due to traffic congestion contributed by freight transportation as they distribute goods. The current design of the roads network allows company trucks to mix with other vehicles. This arrangement sometimes causes unnecessary jams, time inefficiencies and the waste of non-renewable resources. Given this, it would be appropriate to reduce the overdependence on freight transport so as to increase transport efficiency.

Conceptualization

The scope of green logistics allows it to identify operations that improve economic performance and eliminate adverse impacts on the environment caused by the supply chain activities of firms. The initiation of the green practices must take place within the company and incorporate business planning and application efforts. This implies that green logistics development contains policies of green businesses and a range of practices that encourage companies to evaluate their influence on the environment, define environmental goals, implement environmental procedures, monitor the attainment of objectives, and carry out management reviews. Considering the notion of drivers from the execution of green logistics, the concept draws on the alignment for organizational change. Firms must vary their primary orientation toward sustainability. The organization’s dimension changes include change process and change outcome. Outcome alignment concentrates on what might be affected as a result of the modification while process alignment emphasizes how the change can be achieved. For example, the resulting alignment can take the form of green awards for the companies that uphold the green logistics principles. The process alignment can be the developed policies, sustainable green logistics operations, and green logistics technology inventions. Such technologies include solar-powered freight transport and an independent road network system for logistical activities. It is also significant for manufacturers or distributors to apply pressure and offer reorientation to highlight sustainability issues in logistical operations. They must develop certain characteristics such as readiness, adaptability, flexibility, and openness to achieve the desired changes in the transport system.

For the new proposed solutions, there are several stages that organizations must consider to operationalize the initiatives. The initial stage is to accept a pledge for environmental protection management responsibility. Environmental pledges reinforced by the administration involve committing to continual compliance with environmental policies and improved methods of pollution prevention. The next step is to make an assessment of business practices and define the objectives. At this stage, firms must make decisions regarding methods for converting environmental rules into business priorities and actions. The third stage would entail the establishment of an administrative structure and link with other partners to achieve the environmental objectives. Since green logistics development consists of tools for environmental management improvement in companies, taking corrective actions and conducting monitoring is significant for continuous environmental development. The final stage for the new green initiatives conceptualization involves management reviews to obtain critical evaluation and provide new recommendations and environmental protection concerns.

Discussion of Green Logistics ideas and problem

Green Logistics strives to eliminate the adverse influence most companies have on the environment and the climate as a result of their supply chain operations. The core idea of the green logistics concept is to find a permanent solution to the negative externalities that include carbon dioxide emission, over-reliance and exploitation of non-renewable resources, and pollution. The climate remains vulnerable to greenhouse gasses emissions. The adoption of green transportation means and green waste management mechanisms are some of the initiatives that authorities must focus on to manage the externalities and restore environmental vitality. Factors that may influence the outcome of the green initiatives include elected officials, consumers, company rules, and society as a whole (Seroka-Stolka, 2014). Today, transport sustainability is influenced by various factors that include communication factors, poor chain incorporation, delivery limitations, and delays. Infrastructural development that aims to conform to the tenets of green logistics must always put into consideration the influencers above.

El-Berishy and Scholz-Reiter (2016) developed a two-stage stochastic model that could generate optimum routes and speeds for the trucks. The goal of the design was to lower associated carbon emissions and the distribution expenses. This was an incorporated tactical decision-making strategy that reduces transportation operations, and consequently the impacts it has on the environment. In their studies, the authors found that the model could lower the transportation expenses by around 13%. At the same time, the model remained environmentally responsible and friendly (El-Berishy & Scholz-Reiter, 2016). This was a green logistic initiative, and it demonstrated the potential the concept has in eliminating the negative externalities traditional supply chains have on the climate and environment.

Sustainable development can be a green logistics benchmark. This is because the concept mostly deals with social development, environmental protection, and economic development. Logistics typically happens in the scales of enterprises. This is true even among companies with a global reach. Logistics activities are performed only within the firm and their impacts adversely affect the immediate environment of the enterprise (Bajdor, 2012). Nonetheless, in spite of the introduction of sustainable development concept, logistics activities can assist in the development of green logistics which does not merely concentrate on minimizing the negative effects on the environment, but also includes the behaviors and tools that participate in enlightening society and local community and their rapid economic progress. Presently, the concept of green logistics emphasizes environmental protection concerns. However, the introduction of sustainable development concepts will facilitate efficient operation in sustainable development elements and will also assist in the popularization of sustainable logistics concepts (Bajdor, 2012).

Businesses stand to reap significant benefits from green logistics. According to Saroha (2014), an enterprise can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by large margins, unlock substantial cost savings, intensify supply chain optimization, and increase business performance. However, the author notes that some challenges and inconsistencies that companies face when adopting green logistics exist. Green logistics would be expected to be environmentally friendly. But the problem is logistics itself is not inherently green since it is responsible for producing waste and pollution. As such, firms are bound to encounter inconsistencies related to cost, flexibility, reliability, warehousing, and e-commerce. Most companies desire to adopt the cheapest methods for carrying out their operations, but at the same time, they should select green options. These choices are sometimes expensive and may involve significant costs. Such instances are contrary to the expectations since green logistics is supposed to minimize costs and protect the environment from the negative externalities. The strategies for cost-saving desired by logistics practices mostly vary with environmental considerations. The contemporary incorporated supply chains offer competent and adjustable physical distribution systems. However, on the other hand, retailing and distribution models, distribution, and extended production produce more greenhouse gasses and take require more energy and space. According to Bisk (2016), service reliability is an essential element of logistics. Its success is based on the capability of the logistics to deliver freight with minimal chances of damage or breakage. The least polluting modes are considered the least reliable reading time delivery and safety. Since railways and ships have a bad reputation due to failure to satisfy the customers’ demands, the logistics industry is built around truck shipments and air transportation. However, these modes are environmentally unfriendly (Saroha, 2014). Saroha (2014) believes that the advantages of logistics include a reduction in demand for warehousing. This implies that there has been a transference of inventories to the transport system, particularly the roads. Inventories are in transit and contribute to the problems of pollution and congestion. In this way, the logistical operators do not assume the external costs. The external costs are met by society and the environment. The information technology explosion has given rise to a new dimension in retailing e-commerce. Nonetheless, variations in the systems of physical distribution by e-commerce have increased energy consumption.

Conclusion

In closing, supply chains have been responsible for the numerous environmental degradations witnessed in various parts of the globe. The traditional logistical operations have had several negative effects on the environment and caused the adverse climatic change. These notable effects include traffic congestion, excessive emission of greenhouse gasses, and accidents. Traffic congestion in urban centers is a significant contributor to air pollution. It is also responsible for the emission of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. This negative externality has contributed to the greenhouse effect, increasing the world’s average temperatures and therefore contributing to global warming. Several authors have suggested adjustments to the logistical operations that can be both environmentally and socially friendly, and economically functional. Among the initiatives that conform to the principles of green logistics, tenets include consolidation of freight transportation, multimodal shipment, utilization of clean motors during distribution, and home deliveries. This research paper presents new solutions to the problems caused by conservative supply chains. The green initiatives are built on the previously suggested green strategies and aimed at making the transportation systems more efficient, non-reliant on nonrenewable sources, and reduced emissions of greenhouse gasses. Investment in solar-powered trucks that will be used for distribution purposes is a new green logistics initiative which will ensure that the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere is significantly reduced (Hunt, 2011). It will also remove over-dependence on nonrenewable energy sources such as oil and gasoline. Solar energy is free; as such, firms will be able to maximize their profits. Companies also need to subcontract with carbon dioxide offsetting companies and integrate their services into supply chain operations. These firms remove tons of emitted greenhouse gasses for a set fee. Finally, road networks need to be re-designed to provide freight transportation with independent lanes. This will ensure that the issues associated with traffic congestion are reduced. The strategy will significantly reduce the amount of time required to transport goods as well as cut emissions by a significant percentage.

Green logistics development

Green logistics refers to strategies and practices of supply chain management that eliminate or reduce the ecological and energy footprint of freight distribution. This concept concentrates on waste management, packaging, material handling, and transport. Deliberations on sustainable transportation put an emphasis on passengers and marginalize freight issues (In Fahimnia et al., 2015). Logistics takes center stage in contemporary transport systems operations. It implies a level of organization and control over the movements of freights brought about by modern technology. Logistics has become a significant advancement in the sector of transportation. Likewise, greenness is a code word that represents an array of environmental concerns and is typically viewed in positive terms. Greenness is used to imply compatibility with the environment, and hence like logistics is considered valuable. When these two concepts are combined, they mean an environmentally responsible and efficient distribution and transport infrastructure (Rodrigue, Slack & Comtois, 2016).

Previously, dealing with environmental concerns was not a priority when it came to freight transportation logistics. However, changes that occurred over time brought this issue more to the forefront. Green logistics ultimately became an integral part of the supply chain’s discourse and operations. Physical distribution and material handling can now be expanded with an additional emphasis on initiatives to alleviate the challenges of logistical activities. The traditional focus of industrial item design and development is the improvement of competitive characteristics such as performance, features, quality, and prices. Such processes are common in particular commodities such as phones, computers, and televisions. Goods are being considered from the perspective of supply chains (Rodrigue, Slack & Comtois, 2016). This includes distribution and sourcing where the issue centers on designing supply chain management that is more environmentally responsible and friendly. This may entail the physical attributes of the product such as the intensity of the material, for example, lighter or processes of production that provide for an increased transport density of the components. Suppliers located close to sourcing points may be considered even when their prices are high so that the costs of transport can be significantly reduced. Resolutions can also include preferring suppliers who have shown that the resources and parts they offer have been secured in a sustainable way.

Strategies in a physical distribution deal with initiatives to reduce adverse impacts on the environment due to distribution activities including processes in warehousing and transportation. They include the utilization of tools that have been proven to be environmentally efficient and carriers that conform to the principles of environmental friendliness. Preferences can be given to shipments delays until adequate load factor is satisfied. The utilization of alternative modes and fuels is implemented mainly for urban logistics. Greener supply chains may be achieved when long-distance travel patterns shift to economies of scale on maritime shipping as well as rails.

Material handling is concerned with reducing the negative impacts on the environment. The impacts relate to the manufacturing stages of goods along the supply chains. A salient initiative entails proper packing and packaging to heighten the load density and reduce waste and material consumption. Materials with low impacts particularly the recycled resources have high preferences as industrial inputs. As products and their components increase their recyclability, strategies of waste management are pursued to ensure that the final product is either disposed of appropriately or, preferably recycled.

Inspired Green Logistics Initiatives discussions

Lean

The central idea in lean is customer value maximization while reducing waste. Lean implies the creation of customer value using fewer resources. A lean institution focuses all the resources on creating and increasing customer value. The final objective is to offer perfect value to the consumers through a faultless value creation method that produces no waste (Nawanir, Kong Teong, & Norezam, 2013). Lean thinking alters the management focus from enhancing separate technologies, vertical departments, and assets to optimizing the products and services through value streams that move horizontally across departments, assets, technologies to consumers. The eradication of waste along with the system of the value stream rather than eliminating them at isolated points establishes processes that require less human power, less capital, space and less time to manufacture goods and offer services at reduced costs with significantly lower defects when compared to conventional business systems. Firms can adapt to varying consumer demands with high quality, high variety, very fast, and at low cost. Additionally, information management becomes easier and precise. Given such business performance and quality, several green logistics initiatives are in place with similar attributes. One such firm is BMW (Saroha, 2014). The automobile manufacturer now manufactures vehicles with 100% recyclable components. This is a lean green logistics move that ensures fewer waste materials and reduces human efforts in industrial activities since the vehicle parts that are recyclable are considered a significant industrial resource. As such, it saves money, space, and time.

Six-Sigma

Supply chains have incorporated six-sigma into their activities to enhance reliability and eradicate additional expenditures from logistical operations. Six-sigma progresses and redesigns obsolete processes, and supports administrative duties in continuous processes (Furterer, 2009). It provides the most appropriate performance evaluation metrics employed in the logistics industry. The green strategies such as consolidation of freights and multimodal shipment that aims at eliminating traffic overcrowding and overconsumption of nonrenewable sources meet the criteria of six-sigma. These green logistical processes are part of the operations of the organizations and strategic goals and fill the loopholes that exist in the firm supply chain operations that may cause degradation or adverse climatic change. Freight consolidation, home delivery, clean vehicles, and freight consolidation, incorporate the superior characteristics of six-sigma and help address the climatic and environmental concerns, create a project charter, provide a road map to the logistical problems, and facilitate statements of objectives. The solutions given to address the environmental challenges must exhibit green logistics principles and alleviate the issues occasioned by the conventional supply chains. In this view, six sigma desires to re-model processes that fail to conform to the expected standards and make them viable again when they start to solve the relevant environmental and climatic concerns (Lean Six Sigma, Business Improvement, and Logistics, 2011).

Lean Six

Lean Six is a method that depends on combined efforts with the ultimate aim of improving performance through systematic waste removal. It strives to bring together lean manufacturing or lean enterprise and six sigma to eradicate the wastes that include processing, waiting, motion, inventory, and transportation. Green logistics solutions such as the use of solar-powered vehicles and road network redesigning, and freight consolidation are examples of lean six initiatives. Apart from the fact that these green strategies tend to improve the previous six-sigma practices to provide increased environmental friendliness and responsibility, they increase transport efficiency. The green operations require cooperation from several stakeholders to register success. For instance, organizations that migrate from traditional supply chains to the environmentally enhanced system will need the input of vehicle manufacturers to produce freights carriers that operate on solar energy. The company staff is more likely to accept and appreciate the operation changes if provided with proper information. One of the obligations of top management includes procuring the trucks that conform to the new green technology. As such, each must put effort towards the attainment of the lean-six strategy to enable it to work. Road redesigning that facilitates faster freights movement will ultimately increase time efficiencies. Besides, its success as a lean six green logistics method leads to decreased carbon emissions, congestion, and prevents avoidable accidents. These lean-six green logistical strategies come with double advantage to the organizations. First, they ensure efficiency by removing waste. This is a typical attribute of lean-six methodology. Secondly, they ensure that all the system operations lead to fewer environmental hazards and emissions. As such, they help to maintain the climatic qualities favorable to humans and all living creatures. Lean six successes in green logistics include Numina Warehouse Technologies, which utilizes lean distributions methods, Three BPL Transplace and Ryder (Lean Six Sigma Success Stories in Logistics Industry, 2016)

Implementation, Management and Follow Through

The green logistics initiatives will take form during the implementation stage. The activities in this phase will entail results in construction. This implies that different programs and programmers will be involved in various actions that will help realize the structural strategies such as road building and reorganization by contractors, graphic material development, and engineering works that facilitate green-powered freight carriers. In this implementation stage, the green projects will be visible to the public and the execution momentum will be maintained so as to achieve significant milestones during the initial stages. Several materials and services will be availed including the latest solar technologies, land architecture techniques, and physical planning. The objective will be to ensure that the current transportation infrastructures are not destroyed to enable traffic flow as works continue.

Managing green logistics initiatives will involve regular assessments to ensure that the project continues at a predetermined pace. Quality will also be an issue such that the design of the new engines that will operate on solar power must meet international standards. The government will also ensure other sectors observe green standards such as pricing, policy controlling of distribution of hazardous products, reduction in packaging wastes, and compulsory recycling.

Follow-through will include all operations that ensure the success of green logistics initiatives. Such activities will be conducted by the industrial stakeholders and will involve handbook preparation, giving instructions to the users as well as organizing for their training. People to undergo training include drivers, road users, and packagers. Help desks will also be set up so that manufacturers and distributors may obtain help whenever necessary and will also facilitate smooth transition and management of the projects during the first days. Other follow through events include the assessment of the green logistics projects, report writing, and results in maintenance.

Green Logistics Successful stories

Case Study 1: IKEA Model

IKEA is Swedish-based a multinational company that designs and sells furniture at affordable prices. This company’s perspective of green logistics entails first, to eliminate the wooden pallets from the supply chain process. Rather than employing pallets made of wood, IKEA utilizes cardboard/paper pallets and ledges. Below the ledges are plastic legs. The approach the firm has adopted enables it to reduce transportation and save a significant amount of resources including time and energy and alleviate emissions of greenhouse gasses by substantial proportions. Additionally, the PP/LL requires less space for packing versus when wooden pallets are utilized in manufacturing (Saroha, 2014). The company has adopted a system that completely conforms to the principle of green logistics. As such, it contributes to the protection and preservation of the natural environment. IKEA’s Iway system of monitoring directs its transport associates to utilize the low carbon dioxide equipment. The Iway system is IKEA’s system of measurement, and its development was initiated from within the company’s operations. The IKEA firm has developed several objectives within green logistics principles that guide its activities and define its aims as far as environmental protection and performance are concerned. They include a total of sixty percent flow incorporation to non-wooden pallets in 2012. In 2014, the company aimed at making integration to non-wooden pallets complete. That is 100% non-wooden pallet utilization. In 2015, it aimed at ensuring that all its transport met the Iway measuring system standards (Saroha, 2014).

Case Study 2: Go green solution – DHL

DHL Worldwide Forwarding solutions offer a reliable method for managing and accounting for carbon dioxide emissions. The method DHL has adopted conforms to the greenhouse gas protocol. The company has developed the best carbon and comprehensive carbon offsetting services (Saroha, 2014). It has established a methodology for efficiently reporting carbon with high accuracy and reliability. For quite some time now, DHL has had experience in greenhouse gasses reporting, and it has acquired the expertise to provide accurate carbon dioxide calculations. The company can provide the best in class carbon dioxide calculations, considering shipment, operational information including distance traveled, weight/volume, trade lane, age, fleet, and mode and reliable sources of emission factors. DHL carbon calculation method is in itself a green initiative and relevant to the world economic forum for carbon reporting. Other objectives developed by DHL include establishing a carbon report that offers confidence and enables other organizations to design their greenhouse reduction approaches. Apart from allowing the supply chains of other organizations to calculate carbon emissions and consequently offsetting them, the DHL go-green initiative is an efficient system and has environmental protection as an overriding objective and interest at the heart of all its operations. Since green logistics focuses on eliminating the negative influence of supply chains through the use of cheap alternative methods, this company’s carbon calculation system and offsetting services support the environmental protection efforts and observes the green logistics policies.

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Recommendations

Application of green logistics concept to supply chain management must take into consideration the freight distribution spatial footprint. The expenses for advancing transport infrastructure to accommodate the new green logistics strategies are high. As such, subsidies are necessary from national governments. Besides, hub structures that reinforce most logistical tools require lands. Roads and rail terminals are among the most significant land users in the cities. It is also recommended that all expenses be reflected in user costs. Such expenditures may come from site provision for freight road construction so as to facilitate easy management. Cooperation between stakeholders is expected to expedite the implementation of green logistics strategies and its integration into supply chains. Manufacturers and distributors must strive to work as a unit. Since green logistics cuts across several sectors of the economy and impacts society in a significant way, each segment should work towards the realization of the environmental protection goals and reduction in the operation cost. Redesigning road networks to accommodate independent freight transportation lanes needs proper planning and implementation so that the current traffic flow should not be disrupted. Governments must accept cooperation with the industrial players and allocate funds to facilitate the transition from the current supply chain system to the proposed structures that observe green logistics principles.

Final Conclusion

Green logistics development is an idea with perfect solutions to the environmental issues that the traditional logistical operations have caused. This concept is focused on supply chain management initiatives that function to reduce freight distribution’s ecological and energy footprint. The global emphasis on environmental concerns has had pressure on logistical operations. This attention to climatic and environmental issues has been a result of the damages that supply chain activities have caused. Road transport accounts for a significant proportion of greenhouse gas emissions every year. As such, new strategies that conform to the principles of green logistics are created and executed to counter the negative impacts that include global warming, noise and air pollution, accidents, urban traffic congestion, over-dependence on nonrenewable sources, and high energy use. Previous green logistics development initiatives included the use of clean vehicles, multimodal shipment, home deliveries, and freight consolidation. These strategies aimed at enhancing supply chains in a way that reduces the number of freight transports hence decongesting traffic in the cities, less carbon dioxide emissions and reduce energy consumption. Considering the tenets that underpin green logistics, further developments in the previously suggested green practices are required to gain the environmental benefits. Therefore, this research paper proposed various adjustments and new initiatives that focused on minimizing carbon emissions, traffic decongestion, pollution, and accidents. This document suggests the use of solar-powered trucks for distributions, integration of carbon offsetting firms into supply chains so that carbon dioxide removal becomes a practice within the manufacturers or distributing companies, and finally redesigning of roads to allow freight transport ply independent lanes. Implementation of these new green initiatives would ensure a significant reduction in carbon emissions. They will also solve traffic congestion. This way, less time will be spent in distributions. Companies will be able to maximize profits since solar power is free and they will be able to deliver their goods in a timely manner.