While manufacturers, retailers and their logistics service suppliers continue to struggle with the challenges presented by the recessionary effects on volumes and costs in their supply chains, it is clear that they have not lost sight of their responsibilities to care for the environment. One of the highest delegate attendances of the 20-plus tracks that comprised the Conference educational sessions was that devoted to environmental issues. Government policy and regulation, carbon footprint measuring, consumer demand trends and means of emission control, as well as other aspects of sustainability were addressed by a selection of speakers.<\/p>\n
Sharon Bringelson, Divisional VP International at Sears was among those who attempted to debunk several myths that have grown up surrounding environmental corporate policies in recent years. She was at pains to point out that many green initiatives save cost rather than increase it and that these policies\u2014when enacted\u2014can bring positive results more quickly than sometimes expected. She emphasised that \u2018green\u2019 was not just a short-term fad and policies not concocted simply as PR exercises.<\/p>\n
Ms. Bringelson\u2019s own pet project, she revealed, was a drive towards a paperless management environment, which she has been pursuing within her own division at Sears with the help of IT systems for supply chain communication and visibility supplied by the portal GT Nexus. She emphasised that her experience has taught her that fire-fighting and greening do not mix well; careful planning and policy implementation was required to maximise the performance of environmental initiatives within an international supply chain.<\/p>\n
James Barr, VP of Government Affairs at Ryder Systems, commented that while the development of green policy has been slower than expected due to the recession, recent data indicates that 75% of supply chain end-users still see environmental matters as either \u2018important\u2019 or \u2018very important.\u2019 Barr emphasised that his company like many other service providers have developed a whole array of green measures in response to customer demands, including carbon footprint metrics, ISO 1400 accreditations and fuel management schemes, and that these were more than just paying lip-service. However, while market awareness of the issues continues to grow, there is an urgent need for governments, both at the domestic and international level, to dispel regulatory uncertainty to assist providers in complying with uniform standards.<\/p>\n
David Miller, VP of Global Policy and Economic Sustainability at Con-way, further stressed the need for regulatory clarity. Even within the US, variable state laws are giving transport operators headaches. In addition, many emissions and other performance targets are way too low to be reasonably achievable. Mr. Miller called for far more consultation with industry before hard and fast laws are put in place that will put an undue cost burden on operators and their customers.<\/p>\n
Whatever the issues, CSCMP remains committed to providing the forum for their debate and the focus for the supply chain professional to exchange views and solutions.<\/p>\n
About CSCMP:
Founded in 1963, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) is the leading professional association dedicated to professional education, research and advancement of the supply chain management profession. With over 9,000 members globally representing business, government, and academia from 63 countries, CSCMP members are the leading practitioners and authorities in the fields of logistics and supply chain management. Through its many publications, as well as education and local roundtables which span 28 countries, CSCMP provides its members what they need to become more effective supply chain managers.<\/p>\n
Media Contacts: Peter Owen, ISIS Communications Chicago…Among the myriad of issues discussed by delegates to the recent Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals\u2019 (CSCMP) Annual Conference in Chicago was the complex question of how the environment impact if the global supply chain can be managed in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-9928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9928"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=9928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Madeleine Miller-Holodnicki, Manager of Communications
Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)
Tel: +1 630.645.3487
E-Mail:<\/em> <\/a>mholodnicki@cscmp.org<\/strong><\/a> This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Web Site: cscmp.org<\/em><\/p>\n
Tel: +44 1737 248300
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Web Site:<\/em> www.isiscomms.com<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"