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As concerns about global warming mount, the corporate world is feeling the heat. Reports of shrinking ice caps and rising sea levels (which have been linked to heat-trapping greenhouse-gas emissions) have amped up the pressure on businesses to “decarbonize” their operations.

But when it comes to the logistics end of those operations, it won’t be easy. Experts say logistics (which accounts for an estimated 10 percent of total carbon emissions worldwide) will be one of the toughest economic sectors to decarbonize, due to expectations of rising demand for freight transportation and the industry’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels.

So what can a supply chain professional do about the problem? A new book may offer some answers. In Decarbonizing Logistics: Distributing Goods in a Low Carbon World, author Alan McKinnon examines several approaches to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions: restructuring supply chains, shifting freight to lower-carbon transport modes, using vehicle capacity more effectively, and transforming energy use in the logistics sector. McKinnon, who is a professor

of logistics at Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg, Germany, examines the options from both a technological and a managerial standpoint for all the major transportation modes.

“The greenhouse-gas footprint of logistics is large,” Jean-François Arvis, lead economist for The World Bank, said in a review on the publisher’s website. “Reducing it relies on several mechanisms because logistics involves many activities and participants. This book disentangles this complexity and proposes a clear framework for reduction.”

Putting logistics on a low-carbon diet

Do you dream of pursuing a graduate degree in supply chain management but are deterred by the sticker price? If you’re a woman and have what it takes to get into MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), you may be in luck.

In May, the industry organization AWESOME announced that it is partnering with MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics on a new scholarship for women seeking a master’s degree in the discipline. The group, whose name is an acronym for Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management, and Education, says the scholarship will cover the cost of tuition for a woman who has been newly accepted into MIT’s Supply Chain Management Program.

The winner of the scholarship, known as the AWESOME/MIT AWE (Advancing Women through Education) Scholarship, will receive a 100-percent tuition fellowship for the first year, which equates to roughly a $72,000 value for a student in the class of 2020. To be considered for the award, potential students need only announce their candidacy in their application and include a one-paragraph essay. MIT will review all applications and forward the top three finalists to AWESOME to select the recipient.

Applications will be collected starting in September. The first AWE Scholarship will be awarded in March 2019, with the winner starting classes in August 2019. For more information, contact Bruce Arntzen, executive director of the MIT Supply Chain Program, at barntzen@mit.edu.

New program offers
“AWESOME”
scholarship to MIT

Fans of savory dishes like risotto Milanese, Spanish paella, or Indian biryani are familiar with saffron, the Middle Eastern spice that lends a golden yellow color and distinctive flavor to food. Transport and logistics giant FedEx Corp. may have gained some foodie cred when it awarded a $25,000 grant and $7,500 in business services to Rumi Spice, a Chicago-based business that markets saffron from Afghanistan to restaurants and consumers throughout the U.S., offering Afghan farmers a sustainable alternative to opium farming.

The prize was part of FedEx’s sixth annual Small Business Grant Contest, which is aimed at helping small concerns grow their business both in the U.S. and internationally. Judges selected 10 winners from a field of 7,800 entries from across the country.

In addition to the grand prize, FedEx awarded $15,000 and $5,000 in FedEx Office services to the second-place winner, eco-friendly bottling company Drop Water of Menlo Park, Calif. Eight other businesses each received a $7,500 grant and $1,000 in office services. The recipients included Back of the Yards Coffee (Chicago), Blended Designs (Jacksonville, Fla.), Booze Dogs (Greenville, N.C.), Buckle Me Baby Coats (Londonderry, N.H.), Dauntless Wine Co. (Gaston, Ore.), Fiddlershop.com (Pompano Beach, Fla.), Locker Lifestyle (Grand Rapids, Mich.), and ZZZ Bears (Winston-Salem, N.C.).