Green Supply Chain Network

From weforum.org: “Significant movement is expected towards reduced supply chain carbon intensity. This will create both opportunities and risks for logistics and transport firms, with changes in supply and demand driven by: Regulation of carbon emissions, Higher and more volatile fuel prices, as well as Evolving consumer and client demand. The sector can play an influential role in decarbonization, both in its own operations and through broader supply chain optimisation. This provides direct benefits through reduced costs, managed risks and business growth.”

A Walmart business summit, with keynote speech by Dr. David Suzuki. How could these two seemingly opposed global forces exist in the same confined space? This I had to see.

The sun was just rising as I wheeled up to Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel, to find out what Walmart had up its sleeve when it invited 350 top retail execs and competitors for the Walmart Canada Green Business Summit.

The Mayor, the Premier, environmental alarm, sustainability case studies, live wireless polling, this show had it all. I even got to ask the Walmart CEO, face-to-face, about their business model and position on packaging take-back recycling.

This blog is going to run on a bit, but I wanted to keep all of the info in one document, so grab an organic java and get comfortable. David Suzuki vs. Walmart CEO: The 2010 Walmart Canada Green Business Summit Recap

From Green Energy News: “In a refreshing change of pace, the latest First Family is really putting “their money where their mouth is” in respects to establishing a more economically and environmentally sustainable country. While First Lady Michelle Obama is doing her part by planting an organic garden to supply healthy food and fertilizer, President Barack Obama is now seeking to attain LEED Certification for the colossal, energy-consuming White House.

In Partnership with Green Supply Chain.org, the SCSP certification program is designed to give our graduates a comprehensive knowledge of sustainability across multiple functional areas along with a balance of internal and external knowledge of sustainability leadership and consultancy. 10 Courses are included in this Program:

• Green Purchasing Fundamentals
• Sustainability 101 & Corporate Social Responsibility Es-sentials
• Carbon Strategies
• Environmental Management System (EMS) & ISO 14001
• Green Transportation
• Sustainability Leader: Your First 180-days to Success
• Green Marketing & Sales Force Essentials
• The Sustainability Consultant
• Advanced Green Purchasing
• Environmental Accounting 101

Click the course names above for additional details on all of them and click here to register to become a certified Senior Certified Sustainability Professional (SCSP).

In Partnership with Green Supply Chain.org, the CSP certification program is designed to give our graduates a great balance of core sustainability topics to enable them to stand out individually or to step into a sustainability leadership role with confidence. The 5 courses required to become a CSP are:

• Green Purchasing Fundamentals
• Sustainability 101 & Corporate Social Responsibility Essentials
• Carbon Strategies
• Sustainability Leader: Your First 180-days to Success
• Environmental Management System (EMS) & ISO 14001

Click the course names above for additional details on all courses and click here to register to become a certified Certified Sustainability Professional Certificate (CSP).

In Partnership with Green Supply Chain.org, the GSCP certification program is designed to give graduates a comprehensive knowledge of the sustainability areas confronting supply chain and operations professionals. This program will provide the graduate with very unique credentials and experience. There are 5 Courses included in this Program:

• Green Purchasing Fundamentals
• Sustainability 101: Corporate Social Responsibility Essen-tials
• Carbon Strategies
• Green Transportation: 12 Best Practices & Green Warehouse Strategies
• Green Supply Chain Management

Click the course names above for additional details on all of the courses and click here to register to become a certified Green Supply Chain Professional (GSCP).

FromGreenBiz: “Environmental and agriculture groups, growers and some of the world’s biggest food buyers — Wal-Mart, Sysco and Sodexo among them — have developed a new coalition to incorporate sustainability from the field to the table for specialty crops. More than 30 companies and organizations from around the country are members of the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, which will develop a system for optimizing the supply chain for growing, distributing and selling a number of specialty crops — in this case, a broadly defined group of crops including fruits, vegetables, nuts and horticultural crops.”

From scmr.com: “Earlier this year, congressman and author Jay Inslee spoke to a gathering of Bainbridge Graduate Institute MBA students about his book – Apollo’s Fire, Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy. Congressman Inslee offers a well-thought out hypothesis that there is a need for “a revolution that will transform our economy with new technologies, reinvest in our communities, and create millions of new ‘green collar’ jobs.” This revolution, I believe, must not only begin in clean energy but also must be started in all areas of sustainability.”

From Greenbiz.com: “”The first thing you need to understand about greening a supply chain is that the term ‘green’ is not specific enough. It has the wrong connotations. This is about saving money and becoming efficient.” That is the view of Karl Feilder, chief executive of DHL Neutral Services, a subsidiary of the delivery giant set up to improve the efficiency of both DHL’s and its customers’ supply chains.

Most people by now will be familiar with the term ‘carbon footprint’ and may even have calculated it themselves, but how many are familiar with their ‘water footprint’? It’s about time we all learned what it is, says Professor Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Professor in Multidisciplinary Water Management at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, as soon it will be influencing how we live our lives.
Hoekstra created the water footprint concept in 2002 when he was undertaking research on what is known as virtual water trade flows for the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.