20 DC VELOCITY SEPTEMBER 2013 www.dcvelocity.com
newsworthy
Sustainability initiatives are catching on with top global
supply chain executives, but for the economic rather than
the environmental benefits, a survey has found.
The survey, conducted in the spring by New York-based
business advisory firm Alix Partners LLC and released in
August, found that 72 percent of the roughly 150 respondents had sustainability policies or objectives in place. The
survey results, however, indicate that most of these programs are driven by potential cost savings rather than
altruism. According to 84 percent of survey respondents,
their customers (mostly other businesses) value the savings generated by sustainability initiatives more than their
environmental impact. Likewise, two-thirds of the
respondents said they would not pay their own vendors a
premium for developing green programs. The remaining
one-third said they would be willing to pay suppliers a
mid-single-digit premium for doing so.
The respondents were mainly high-level executives
across 10 industries, the vast majority being shippers.
Most of the executives were based in the U.S. and Europe.
About 55 percent worked for companies with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion. About 21 percent represented
organizations with revenues of more than $10 billion.
REGIONAL DIFFERENCES
The survey results demonstrated what many already
knew: European companies are ahead of their U.S. counterparts in their commitment to sustainability. About 88
percent of European respondents have sustainability programs in place, compared with 76 percent of U.S. companies. About one-third of European executives said green
initiatives were either extremely or very important to their
companies, compared with 26 percent of U.S. executives.
Foster Finley, managing director at Alix, said the survey
was also distributed throughout Asia but that, outside of
Japan, it elicited virtually no response. Many developing
Asian nations, notably China, are focused on industrial
growth and don’t place environmental issues high on their
priority lists, Finley said in a phone interview.
Finley said the most important message from the survey
was that sustainability has expanded from the realm of
social consciousness into the economic mainstream. In
the past, sustainability programs were considered a luxury that generated little more than public relations benefits
for business. Today, they are being developed with a primary eye toward the bottom line, Finley said.
Finley said he was impressed with the finding that one-third of companies would reward their suppliers with
what is tantamount to bonuses for their investments in
sustainability initiatives. “Three or four years ago, that
number would have been close to 5 percent,” he said.
As perceptions about sustainability change, the programs are becoming subject to the same performance
requirements imposed on other segments of an organization. For example, 60 percent of respondents investing in
green programs said their companies would require a
return on investment within 18 months; only 17 percent
said their employers were willing to wait longer than that.
Here, too, however, the attitudes differ by continent. Less
than a third of American executives said they would invest
in green logistics initiatives that didn’t produce positive
financial returns. By contrast, 62 percent of European
executives said they would make such an investment.
Overall, the lack of an adequate financial return within
what is seen as a reasonable timeframe was the main road-
block to greater progress in this area, the survey showed.
In Europe, half of the respondents said recycling raw
materials, energy conservation, or switching to alternative
energy forms were their primary sustainability initiatives.
By contrast, in the U.S., the consolidation of less-than-
truckload shipments into fewer, but larger, truckload ship-
ments was the most popular approach. ;
Survey finds “going green” motivated by saving green, not the planet
Users of Dematic’s mobile monitoring service can now
remotely access and supervise automated guided vehicle
(AGV) equipment and performance via smartphones or
tablet devices. … Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. has
opened a new 32-door service center in Amarillo, Texas,
more than doubling the company’s shipping capacity in the
Texas Panhandle. … Penske Used Trucks is now offering
complimentary warranties and emergency roadside assis-
tance services with the purchase of selected used trucks
and tractors. … Clark Material Handling Co. dealers can
purchase a special pink “Raising Hope” four-wheel pneu-
matic forklift to support the Susan G. Komen Race for the
Cure event to be held in Lexington, Ky., in October. … The
Georgia Ports Authority marked record volumes for fiscal
year 2013 in total tonnage, bulk cargo, total auto-machin-
ery units, and freight moved by intermodal rail. A bumper
crop of wheat has also led to a booming export business at
the Port of Brunswick in Georgia. … Con-way Freight has
unveiled a commemorative wall of Distinguished Drivers at
its Charlotte, N.C., service center to honor the 41 profes-
sional drivers who have driven between 1 million and 2
million miles without a single incident.
short takes
