Carbon

Overview

Optimized transportation and logistics planning makes good business and environmental sense. Refining the way we package and ship items can improve the bottom line dramatically by reducing waste, freight charges, and time in transit. The impact on the environment can be equally dramatic: efficient transportation reduces GHG emissions and conserves fuel.

Transportation and Logistics Objective

The Sustainable Mail Group advocates for the development of innovative packaging materials and the adoption of forward-thinking packaging and shipping techniques.

SMG recommends that sustainable transportation options be selected whenever possible and that carbon offsets be purchased to balance emissions.

First steps

• Optimize loads whenever possible:
  • Maximize the quantity of pieces in each load.
  • Optimize the timing for multiple loads in a single push.
  • Minimize dead space in each load by refining packaging techniques.
• Adopt new pallet options:
  • Paper pallets or perfect pallet exchange programs.
• Explore new pallet wrap options.
  • Explore resuable pallet wrap options with exchange programs.
  • Attempt to gravitate away from poly-wrap because of its negative impact on the environment and difficulty to recycle.
  • Look for closed loop solutions or recapture waste diversion solutions that can turn this material into income streams.