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Supply Chain Sustainability: How We’re Making an Impact (and Saving, too!)

We can all argue the realities and myths of global warming, but we should all believe in being green. Along with the altruistic reasons to save the environment for our grandchildren, there are good business reasons for being green. With so many products and services to choose from in logistics or any of our businesses, it makes sense to find increased opportunities to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Going green is a great way to stand out. The following are some simple steps Langham Logistics has taken that you and your company can also take today to save money and decrease negative impacts on the environment.

Our company headquarters operates out of a 306,000 square foot facility in Indianapolis, and we’ve recently added a new facility in Plainfield Indiana that is approximately 240,000 square feet. There are lots of opportunities to institute thoughtful green initiatives.

  1. Make sure your partners are certified “Smartway carriers.” Smartway is a voluntary public-private partnership with the EPA that measures, benchmarks and improves logistics operations to reduce their carbon footprint. The process helps companies identify and select more efficient freight carriers, transport modes, equipment and operational strategies to improve supply chain sustainability.
  2. Replace outdated warehouse equipment with more energy efficient models that are proven to provide long term economic as well as environment savings.
  3. Work closely with your customers to design and implement efficient supply chains to reduce transit and fuel usage, along with maximizing space on trucks for shipping. (We have on-boarded a few customers with several DC’s around the country to consolidate their operations into Indianapolis to reduce travel time and fuel consumptions.)
  4. No idle zone. Set Appointment times for transportation vendors and load trucks promptly. These efforts reduce the idling and emissions from trucks as they are waiting to be loaded and unloaded.
  5. Energy efficient T-5 Lighting. We recommend this lighting system upgrade in the warehouse. This would include lighting fixtures with occupancy sensors. Instituting the change resulted in an annual 1,276,000 KWH reduction (68%) and reduction of 1,137 metric tons of CO2 emissions for Langham.
  6. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Scrap cardboard and corrugate should be recycled on a daily basis. For our largest warehouse customers, where appropriate, empty boxes are reused for shipping return product. What is not reused, is recycled.

We would love to hear your ideas! Please send any to sales@elangham.com.

This post was originally published on August 22, 2016 and updated on July 24, 2019.

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