The benefits of green logistics
Benefits of green logistics is a top trending topic in the transportation industry. Eco-friendly transportation is longer just a buzzword, an unrealistic expectation from as recently as ten years ago. It has become an attainable, essential, and even lucrative business strategy. Sustainability appears to have become a priority for many businesses
Why implement a sustainability strategy in your supply chain?
As the industry becomes more attuned to customer demands, more shippers and customers choose socially responsible logistics partners aligned with their values. According to numerous polls, more and more customers tend to cancel their purchases if the seller company doesn’t support sustainability. Executives have felt the pressure to update their strategies and shift to a more environmentally friendly approach.
The transportation industry is notorious for contributing to global air and water pollution, accounting for around 20% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Every year, more and more businesses make an effort to reduce fuel consumption. They also strive to optimize the usage of resources, and make sustainability their priority. At this point, it is no longer an option for global companies to be unconcerned with environmental issues.
Benefits of green logistics for businesses
Besides apparent advantages like upgrading the brand image and increasing the popularity of your products, adopting a sustainable strategy can bring you even more valuable benefits.
Risk mitigation
Sustainability in the supply chain is not just about environmentalism. Although that is a critical factor, supply chain resilience is another emerging contributor. Optimizations to attain more environmentally sustainable practices will not only ensure that your supply chain survives but thrives through challenges for decades.
Visibility into your operations with sustainability in mind also uncovers many potential risks and increases your efficiency. Companies should assess risks across the supply chain to detect potentially harmful practices to employees, customers, or the environment. It is a crucial first step to preventing those risks from occurring.
You may consider integrating a transportation management system (TMS) into your green supply chain. TMS can increase transportation visibility, manage delivery operations better, and simultaneously supervise the emissions level. By detecting the most environmentally dangerous areas of your supply chain, you’ll be able to reduce your carbon footprint and experience other benefits of green lositics.
Customer retention and industry collaboration
Sustainable supply chains attract customers and expand opportunities for collaboration and partnerships with businesses. Today, businesses are very strategic about their alliances. Therefore, they often opt to work with companies that adhere to international sustainability standards like ISO 14001 (The international standard for environmental management systems).
Since many modern customers can refuse to buy your products if they violate environment-friendly values, implementing a sustainability strategy is an excellent way to expand your target audience. You can work on sustainability on multiple supply chain levels, from cooperating with eco-conscious vendors to applying recyclable or biodegradable product packaging.
Profitability
Companies are often hesitant to adopt sustainability practices as they fear it will happen at the expense of the company’s profits. It is still the most critical concern for businesses. Going green is typically associated with increased spending to make initial changes and risking decreased operational efficiency.
However, there are many low-cost, low-risk ways to make your supply chain more sustainable. Becoming more environmentally responsible doesn’t mean switching to driverless trucks overnight and shutting down operations. Business owners can gradually implement these optimizations to rein in spending, allow time to monitor and reduce risks, and properly promote these changes to their customers and business partners.
Also, recycling waste can be more cost-efficient than paying waste taxes for some companies. Since materials recycling relies considerably on social initiatives, it creates even more opportunities for effective cost-saving.
How to make your supply chain sustainable?
In the beginning, businesses can take small but impactful sustainability steps by participating in environmental initiatives and partnerships. These minor improvements will differentiate your brand as a sustainable logistics company for your customers, ultimately increasing brand loyalty and profits.
Today, the profits of logistics companies with sustainable and social responsibility practices are way higher than those of companies with low environmental responsibility. Customers generally tend toward companies that share their values.
It’s essential to detect areas of your supply chain best suitable for implementing sustainability practices. On the supplying level, you may consider buying from vendors who produce materials with lower waste. If you are the producer, think of switching to alternative energy sources for manufacturing processes.
On the transportation level, you can apply for load consolidation programs to reduce transport exploitation or integrate route optimization software to shorten the commute time of vehicle units. Besides, gradually abandon plastic packaging to replace it with eco-friendly materials later.
Sustainable shipping with PLS Logistics Services
At PLS Logistics Services, we strive to reduce transportation emissions through innovative tools and a reliable management system. We want to help our clients experience various benefits of green logistics. Our trusted carriers are ready to support your initiatives without harming delivery efficiency and increasing shipping prices. Get a quote to put that into practice!
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