greenlogistics
BY JAMES A. COOKE, EDITOR AT LARGE
COMMENTARY
Looming legislative and industry mandates mean distribution managers will soon have a new job responsibility: cutting carbon emissions. get ready to cut down on carbon get ready to cut down on carbon
THIS MONTH, REPRESENTATIVES OF MAJOR WORLD
governments will be gathering at the Climate Control
Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in what some see as
a make or break attempt to negotiate a global climate
treaty. They will discuss ways to advance the Kyoto
Protocol, a treaty to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, a
treaty that has been signed by more than 180 nations
(although the United States isn’t one of them), a treaty that
runs out in 2012.
Although the upcoming summit has dominated the
headlines, it’s just one of many looming eco-initiatives that
could change the way distribution executives do their jobs.
Regardless of what happens in Copenhagen, it’s likely that
U.S. companies next year will face some type of legislative
or industry mandate to begin reducing emissions of a key
greenhouse gas—carbon dioxide (CO2)—in their distribution operations. (Distribution operations are liable to be
targeted because supply chains account for an estimated 30
percent of those emissions in the United States.)
What should distribution managers keep an eye out for?
First, there’s the legislative push in the current Congress to
adopt a “cap and trade” system much like the one many
European nations have already put in place to comply with
the Kyoto Protocol. Under cap and trade, a company or
industry is given a permit to give off a certain amount of
carbon dioxide. If it stays below its quota, a company can
sell its unused allowances to a company that’s exceeding its
quota, enabling it to avoid fines.
Back in June, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of
2009—legislation that would not only establish a cap-and-
trade program but would also mandate that by 2020, the United States
must reduce the amount of CO2 in
the nation’s atmosphere by 17 percent from 2005 levels. Action on a
companion bill awaits in the
Senate.
Since industry and conservative groups have raised
objections to the legislation
(including the fact that the other top producers of greenhouse gases, China and India, have not yet committed to
reducing their own emissions), the bill’s fate is uncertain.
However, there will be a push for federal regulatory action,
since the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago ruled that the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority
to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. This
fall, the EPA proposed greenhouse gas rules for factories,
oil refineries, and power plants. Many Washington
observers expect the agency to put forward similar CO2
emissions rules for trucks and automobiles in 2010.
Sizing the carbon footprint
But it isn’t just the federal government that’s pushing for
restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions. There’s also a private initiative under way by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that
would force suppliers to clean up their act.
This past summer, the retail giant announced that it
would begin developing a sustainability index, with the
eventual goal of creating environmental labels for all products sold in its stores. The index would measure a product’s
