"Although freight vehicles only represent 10 to 20 percent of total vehicle mileage, their heavy weight and slow acceleration can produce large impacts on road networks and the surrounding community in the form of air and noise pollution. By improving freight transport efficiency and shifting reliance to alternative modes, communities can reduce traffic congestion and fuel consumption, save on road maintenance costs, reduce air and noise pollution and improve community livability."TIL that the movement of freight in the United States results in 500 million tons of GHG emitted per year. Wohhhh...so what can we do?? Strategies suggested later in Roseland's text mirror those I found on the EDF-Business website. The Environmental Defense Fund has compiled a plethora of resources for transportation managers of large companies. For a laugh (and a nice introduction to the idea of green freight), you should watch their cheesy, superhero-themed YouTube video posted to their homepage.
Their handbook (a bit less cheesy) proposes opportunities that follow five principles for green freight:
- Get the most out of every move - Apparently, 15-25% of truck miles driven are EMPTY and even the non-empty trips are an average of 36% underutilized. Packing every truck full of as many goods as possible to minimize freight trips could mean...
- Loading strategically like a game of Tetris: Walmart started loading palates sideways and fit four more in each truck
- Redesigning packaging: HP laptops have 97% less packaging than the average laptop
- Concentrating products: Method reduced water weight in its soaps, so now each bottle is smaller but does an equivalent amount of cleaning
- Choose the most carbon-efficient mode - For intercontinental shipping, planes emit 47x more than container ships. For national movement of goods, trucks emit 6x more than trains. Shipping by train also has the potential to cut automobile congestion on interstates and reduce traffic accidents. For businesses, the biggest savings in both dollars and emissions could be garnered from avoiding rushed cross-ocean trips.
- Collaborate with other shippers - A case study: Ocean Spray was shipping cranberry juice from NJ to FL then sending empty containers back north. Tropicana was shipping from FL to NJ then sending empty containers back south. ...You get the picture.
- Redesign your logistics network - This one's a bit too technical for me, but basically, it sounds like optimizing warehouse locations, shipping routes, and connections based on where most of your consumers are. This could also include minimizing the transportation of inputs to the manufacturing process. Cluster development, the geographic grouping of interrelated firms that can buy and sell from the each other, has become a prevalent strategy for both sustainability and economic development.
- Demand cleaner equipment and practices - This could include insisting on high efficiency vehicles, building state-of-the-art sustainable warehouses, closely monitoring employee actions for bad practices, or even cleaning up communities negatively impacted by freight emissions.
Now, these are all strategies aimed at the companies who move all this stuff around, but here's what I think individuals may be able to do to help: 1) Buy less, 2) Buy local, 3) Buy with less packaging, 4) Buy concentrated, and 5) NEVER buy bottled water. It's the worst, for a variety of reasons (see my favorite source, below)
Great connection with transportation and consumerism. I sometimes imagine how ridiculous it must look as humans transport billions of bottles of water everyday despite water availability. If we are already putting in the infrastructure to transport mass amounts of water across countries, why is bottled water still a thing? Perhaps in the future we will exist in post-bottle world, where everyone is expected to carry their own bottle around. Or maybe there will be water fountains every 300 feet and we won't even need to carry water bottles round. The impact this has on GHGs and those heavy freight vehicles is all the more reason this should be considered sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteCool post, green freight is never something I really thought about. So it seems that most of the strategies are voluntary actions that companies could undertake if they wanted to be more sustainable. But what if they are just driven by the profit margin? Can/has the government ever implemented policies governing shipping policies? Would it be possible for the government to mandate fuel efficiency standards solely for shipping? I am not sure, but it seems that not everyone is exactly interested in being more green. I know that alot of times it will save you money in the end, it just seems that many companies need a firm nudge in the right direction before they undertake any action.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure most of you have seen this already, but Tapped is a good documentary about the bottled water industry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf64t6TkoBY
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo, I love your checklist. Maximum efficiency should definitely be a goal of freight carrier, and we as consumers can play a part in encouraging these actions.Buying less is the simplest solution of all, because, as you've highlighted throughout this blog, we have so much STUFF we simply don't need. Coupled with increased transport efficiency, and we've made a significant difference in a number of environmental areas. Yay efficiency! Boo unnecessary stuff!
Your post reminds me of a saw a semi-truck on the road the other day and it had a bumper sticker that said, "Sick of trucks? Stop buying stuff!"
ReplyDeleteI don't know why, but I'd never thought about semi-trucks being empty, or carrying empty bottles. It's pretty sickening, actually. I think that checklist provides a great framework for reducing waste - however how much better would it be if we redesigned the infrastructure. High speed trains, from Katie's blog, would be a high efficient, low emission method of delivering our stuff to cities. Then, we could get smaller hybrid trucks to take the goods to the businesses in the city. How many times have you seen a big semi trying to navigate a small city street? Its so frustrating for everyone involved! It would be great if trucks packaged more efficiently, but it would be so much better if they didn't exist at all!
Green freight….pretty interesting! It definitely surprised me how much more carbon intensive airplanes are than freight. I could see this being a big seller to distribution companies because my guess is that environmental savings in transportation are highly correlated with saving money as well. I think this will become even more relevant when the freight trucks become “self driving” as Brad explained in his blog and the most efficient routes can be optimized using complex algorithms. However, I know that 3 million workers in the U.S. derive their income from driving trucks, taxi’s, etc, so I think there will be a social and economic effect when this idea comes to fruition.
ReplyDeleteCool post, Dana. As always you take an interesting approach to the topic. I was downtown recently and a representative from a new company asked me to take a survey about shipping on a much smaller scale. The company was called Roadie. It's a company that specializes in small-scale, peer-driven shipping. Think Uber, but for shipping. Basically, you could call a main hub that would dispatch an independent driver to your location, pick up your package, and drive it across town. This package could be as small as a duffle bag. How inefficient is this?
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