Global Transport Logistics
Help Reduce the Biggest Carbon Footprint of All
“Cutting your carbon footprint” has become a household phrase in the past year, with a flood of news stories, advertising campaigns and buzz about how you can do your bit at home to prevent global warming. Millions of ordinary people are going around fitting energy saving lightbulbs, switching off their TVs properly and recycling their garbage. That’s all well and good, but carbon emissions from individuals is just a tiny piece of the pie.The truth is that the largest part of the global enviornmental burden comes from businesses and organisations.What this means is that even a small change in a large organisation can have a massive impact.
That’s easy for you to say, I hear you grumble. But it’s not my problem to fix. That’s the job of my boss, and my boss’s boss – nothing to do with me. But that’s just not the case. If you have a workplace, you can make big changes to your employer’s carbon footprint.What’s more, green initiatives at work can be hugely more effective than the things you might do in the home.
Here are some pointers, small and large, on achieving a greener workplace:
- Recycle office waste. The amount of paper, cans and plastic used at work is many times more than what you throw away at home. Why not try bringing in recycle containers in accessible locations. There are local government schemes that can help you get these in place.
- Cut down on car travel. Carpools take very little organisation and have a big impact on reducing carbon emissions. Or better still, think about cycling or walking to work.
- Install eco-friendly lightbulbs. In the home, switching a few bulbs will only do so much. But think of how much more energy is used in lighting up your office and you begin to see how powerful a simple thing like switching to energy saving bulbs could be.
- Green Computers. The energy usage of IT systems is huge for the majority of companies and organisations. You can make a big difference simply by making sure your monitor isn’t left on standby when you finish work. Or better still, get on to your IT department to review their “green baseline”. Get them to perform some proper asset tracking on all office IT equipment, using professional asset management software, a business can dramatically reduce its carbon footprint and help meet increasingly stringent government environmental requirements.
- Campaigning. Go to the next level. The real revolution begins when you gather sympathetic colleagues to run Green campaigns at work.If the management aren’t taking their environmental obligations seriously, there’s nothing wrong with exerting a bit of pressure on them to do so, and making a big difference in the process. And in these tough economic times, managers will be keen to implement green intitiatives because very often they are also great money savers (see the IBM ad above!).A good example would be businesses that create huge volumes of carbon emissions from transporting goods by air, sea and land. Pushing them to properly review their transport and Logistics management and make the smallest of improvements can save them big money and dramatically reduce their carbon footprint in the process.
These ideas are just the beginning. This article was primarly aimed at getting your juices flowing about this issue. If you have any other ideas, I’d be happy to hear them!
Future Transport – Freight: Why ships will dominate global trade, logistics, supply chain – speaker
