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 The Globe and Mail: “The United States has agreed to work with Canada and Mexico to develop a North American carbon market that would allow Canadian emitters to meet some portion of their targets through purchasing credits in the vast NAFTA marketplace. The agreement by leaders from the three countries could help keep down compliance costs for Canadian emitters, while expanding the market for renewable energy companies and others that create carbon credits with projects in Canada. “This is the first time the three North American leaders have been together and have started to flesh out the elements of a continental approach to this,” Environment Minister Jim Prentice said in a telephone interview.”

Amid continuing confusion over the scale, scope and timing of planned legislation governing carbon emissions, a leading force in the development of carbon optimisation software is warning that the entire issue could become meaningless unless all nations agree to a common emissions accounting standard.

Ewan French, co-developer of the world-beating CAST-CO2 carbon optimisation software and Chief Operating Officer of Barloworld Optimus, said this week that despite the global economic downturn, pressure on companies to reduce carbon emission remains on a sharp upwards curve – but that individual governments following their own targets and agendas will ultimately result in a dilution of the initiative unless all nations recognise and agree to adopt ‘like-for-like’ carbon calculation and accounting processes.

From SDC(UK): The Earth as a whole is approximately a steady state. Neither the surface nor the mass of the earth is growing or shrinking; the inflow of radiant energy to the Earth is equal to the outflow; and material imports from space are roughly equal to exports (both negligible). None of this
means that the earth is static—a great deal of qualitative change can happen inside a steady state, and certainly has happened on Earth. The most important change in recent times has been the enormous growth of one subsystem of the Earth, namely the economy, relative to the total
system, the ecosphere.

Over the next several months the globalization of carbon reporting will begin to emerge. This will be driven by the entry of the United States into a mode of preparation for carbon reporting which will likely be done based on a coordinated North American initiative. So what does carbon reporting mean? Well there are many approaches currently being taken today by different companies, countries and entities, from basic spreadsheet approaches all the way through to very sophisticated and integrated supply chain carbon reporting models. Supply Chain Networks and Carbon Reporting

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).

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.”