Although the logistics industry is accused of being a major contributor to the planet's global warming problems, in reality, it is not the biggest sinner.
According to Steve Mulvey, food logistics manager at Marks & Spencer, logistics is not the worst offender by any means, but it's a very visible industry to the general public and lobby groups.
Malcolm Wilson, Norbert Dentressangle's managing director of UK logistics, agrees. "The logistics industry is not as bad as it's perceived to be - just very visible. Public opinion and the media traditionally associate logistics with high greenhouse gas emissions. However, recent carbon footprint lifecycle assessments on products such as beer, crisps and smoothies showed that the distribution element of the total footprint was only around 10%. Although we are working towards targets set on the continent, the UK market places higher environmental demands than any other market in Europe."
A year ago, John Perry, managing director of SCALA Logistics Consulting, said that the government needed to think of long-term infrastructure and the logistics industry needed to focus on delivering continued increased efficiencies and seeking ways to gain environmental efficiencies through supply chain collaboration.
Paul Steedman from The Food Ethics Council said that there has been progress with collaboration, new trucks and planes, bigger ships, and the use of water transport and rail. However, in the food supply chain, transport is responsible for just between 2.5% and3.5% of total UK greenhouse gas emissions, while the meat and dairy industry generates 8%.
Steedman believes there will be radical reconfiguring of how people get their food. Possibilities include significant relocalisation of food systems, massive growth in online shopping, and reduced car usage. However, he questions whether today's DC's configurations will hold up in these alternative worlds.
"The ‘local' sector is characterised by low-tech penetration and small, half-loaded vehicles. But what if everything were local? What ethical expectations will consumers have? What will logistics operators do without big stores? What does efficiency look like in this world? Is efficiency a reality or a pipedream then?"
Wilson says that sharing resources is core to Norbert Dentressangle's business, so multi-user warehouses and transport networks with their associated environmental benefits are at the heart of the company's culture.
"Collaboration with our customers and suppliers remains instrumental in the development and achievement of environmental goals," says Wilson, adding that the current high price of fuel intensifies the pressure to find ways to use resources more sparingly.
Marks & Spencer has either already adopted or is seriously considering some of Mulvey's suggestions, including reducing fuel usage, overseas consolidation, and less use of airfreight. M&S is actively looking at coastal shipping to Scotland then rail freighting southwards as opposed to Felixstowe and road freighting northwards.
Trevor Ashworth, director of food & retail logistics at the Co-operative Group, says the group is reducing the environmental impact in two areas: buildings and transport. "By introducing greater capacity vehicles we saved ten million kilometres annually. We have also gained benefits from improved engine specs, including sixty vehicles running on compressed natural gas; transport collaboration with supply chain partners saved 650,000 km in 2007 and already 450,000 km in the first half of 2008."
Bob Diplock, senior partner at SCALA logistics and a self-confessed skeptic at heart, says: "We must be sure that environmental improvement measurements are such that we can demonstrate improvements while delivering better service at same or lower costs."
He pointed out that there are two groups of companies with different approaches to environmental issues. The first group doesn't want to spend inordinate amounts of time on the exercise, only wanting to use information they are already gathering for their own management requirements. This might give the appearance that they're trying to do something positive, but little else.
The second group puts time and effort into gathering information to build up a database that can be used to identify changes in each area of the supply chain.
But Diplock wonders whether manufacturers are likely to reverse recent decisions to make products in Eastern European countries or the Far East to save on carbon emissions, and questions whether retailers will be prepared to cut their margins and buy their goods closer to home.
