Articles
Green Logistics

Supply Chain Sustainability Takes Root
Whether the motive is saving the environment or saving money, companies are embracing supply chain sustainability from the ground up.
Read More
10 Greenest Ports in America
From Atlantic to Pacific, these ports know how to get their green on.
Read More
Getting Packaging Costs Down to Size
Shippers find nested savings by eliminating packaging waste.
Read More
Ready to Reduce Your Footprint? Start by Taking These 5 Steps
For resource-intensive organizations, conservation and environmental initiatives are more than feel-good activities. Environmental stewardship can ease regulatory and compliance burdens, reduce effort and waste, and increase profit margins. Yet, many companies still struggle to justify green efforts. Implementing an environmental initiative in your business can be more than just an exercise in sustainability. The program […]
Read More
Engineering Green DNA
Sustainability and green are two words often used interchangeably. In truth, one is a subset of the other. Sustainability is inclusive, an ethical umbrella that covers a gamut of social, economic, environmental, and business issues. But the idea of sustainment is integral to any green effort. Shippers often run into problems pushing environmental programs because […]
Read More
How to Cut Seven Non-Traditional Wastes
In my first column for Inbound Logistics in 2012, I covered the seven traditional wastes identified in Lean thinking: Transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing, and defects, more commonly known by the acronym TIM WOOD. But there are other wastes to consider in your supply chain and logistics functions. Let’s examine the following seven non-traditional […]
Read More
Growing a Culture of Sustainability
Ford Motor Company’s corporate social responsibility journey offers a roadmap for industry to travel.
Read More
Ocean Spray: Tastes Good, Good for You and the Environment
When companies get serious about cutting costs by reducing their carbon footprint, they call in the Climate Corps.
Read More
Inspecting the Unexpected: The Science of Packaging Perfection
Avoid these 10 common packaging mistakes to keep high transportation costs and inefficiencies from boxing you in.
Read More
Eelco de Graaf: Four-Continent Career
Eelco de Graaf is vice president, supply chain operations at Lewis-Goetz and Company’s corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh. He has held this position since August 2014. Responsibilities: Purchasing, shipping, manufacturing, and operational excellence. Experience: Management trainee, Fortis Financial Group; distribution channel manager, Fortis Investments; key account manager, Fortis ASR; assistant to chairman, executive board of directors, […]
Read More
Diving into Data: A Lean Six Sigma Journey
Six Sigma helps electronic products company Jabil run like a lean, green manufacturing machine.
Read More
Five LED Lighting Myths Debunked
In an effort to run greener and leaner, many companies have considered making the switch to LED lighting in their industrial and hazardous facilities. In fact, interest in and adoption rate of LED for both new construction and retrofit has been growing rapidly in many applications, including light industrial, such as warehousing, packaging, shipping, and […]
Read More
Trends—July 2014
The 25th Annual State of Logistics Report: Ready For a New Route After a rollercoaster year for the economy and the transportation sector, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and Penske Logistics released their 25th annual State of Logistics report. Aptly titled Ready For a New Route, the report focuses on 2013’s weak economy, […]
Read More
Retailers, Watch Your Waste Lines
Hazardous waste is no longer an issue facing only industrial manufacturing companies. It has become an area of significant concern for retailers, too. When it comes to managing hazardous waste, retailers must strike a precarious balance between complexity and control. The repercussions of achieving this balance can be significant. Not only do such infractions place […]
Read More
Could New Fuel Efficiency Standards Lead to Transportation Cost Savings?
In February 2014, the Obama administration outlined plans for improving fuel efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions for American trucks. To support this effort, the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Transportation must set new standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The rules, which the agencies must issue by March 2016, will have ripple […]
Read More
Trends—May 2014
TOTO Plumbs the Benefits of Green To gain favor among ethically conscious customers, retailers and manufacturers continue to put a marketing spin on sustainability. Greenwashing has many shades. Often it surfaces in buzzwords such as eco-friendly and recycled. Sometimes it reveals itself as trust in a brand, or the type of ingredients found in a […]
Read More
A Strategic Approach to Strengthening Supply Chains
Q: What is a leveraged platform? A: A leveraged platform means a logistics service provider employs the same best practices to manage its own supply chain needs as it does for its client base. Benefits to shippers include mode optimization and greater usage of co-load products, as well as intermodal conversion from truckload (TL), or […]
Read More
Trends—February 2014
Canadian Pacific: All Aboard the Profit Train Canadian Pacific Railway‘s renaissance under the tutelage of CEO Hunter Harrison continues unabated. After the veteran railroader’s first full year in charge, the Calgary, Alberta-based railroad posted high-water marks in 2013—despite disruptive spring floods . Canadian Pacific reported total record revenue of $6.1 billion in 2013, with net […]
Read More
Weathering Climate Change and Supply Chain Risk
Companies have become more aware than ever of the considerable risks that climate change poses to their businesses and supply chains. A current or future risk related to climate change was identified by 70 percent of the 2,500 companies responding to Reducing Risk and Driving Business Value, a 2012 survey conducted by the Carbon Disclosure […]
Read More
Food Shippers Go Green
From PepsiCo to Land O’Lakes, these food manufacturers and producers have sustainability best practices down pat.
Read More