Category Archives: Sustainability

I’m Not Sure That I Buy That This Increases Sustainability

According to this recent blog post over on Core 77, Walmart (Canada)’s New Supercube Increases Sustainability by Designing Bigger Trucks. Working with an Ontario-based Company called Innovative Trailer Design, they have commissioned the Walmart Supercube that can hold 30% more cargo in the same footprint. By designing a truck with a squashed cab, they can increase the trailer length from 53 feet to 60 feet without increasing the overall vehicle length. Plus, they are lowering the floor of the trailer and installing a built-in scissor lift to help load the cargo into the far reaches. And they’ve even added a dromedory box that holds an additional 10% of cargo behind the cab that can be independently loaded and unloaded.

Now, technically, if there is no significant difference in fuel usage, then the trucks will be a more sustainable way to move cargo since you will now only require 3 trucks to move what used to take 4 trucks, but if the total number of trucks on the roads do not decrease, then there is no significant advantage.

Plus, more cargo = more consumption, and that’s never an argument for sustainability.

It’s a great concept, and a cool design, but I’m not sure I buy that it’s going to improve sustainability.

Hiperos – It’s So Hip To Be Square with 3rd Party Management! Part I

When we last checked in with Hiperos, they had evolved from a Risk Management platform to an “Extended Enterprise Management” platform that integrated Contract Management, Compliance Management, Performance Management, and Sustainability Management into a 360° solution platform for an organization that wanted to get these various facets of risk under control.

However, as they have continued to roll-out their platform and work with clients in different verticals (beyond finance, which was their initial core strength and where they appear to be dominating the market), they have found that as enterprises get their internal(ly controlled) risks under control, their clients realize that typically the biggest risks they face are from their suppliers and vendors who provide then with all sorts of direct and indirect product and services. As a result, 3rd Party Management (3PM) has become critical to their operational success. How critical?

Consider these statistics. Forty-four percent of data breaches involve third parties, and the most expensive data breach has cost 35.3 Million dollars to resolve. And while this is atypically high, a data breach will cost an organization millions to resolve (as even the cheapest data breach cost $780,000). And if there turn out to be traces of blood money or drug money in your supply chain, it could cost you as much as $160 Million to settle the resulting probe. In short, 3rd Party Risk, if not properly managed, is likely to end up costing your organization millions. The only question is when.

And if you believe that preventative spending to manage risks that might not happen is unwise in this economy, consider this. Organizations that implemented Hiperos 3rd Party Management saw a 75% reduction in customer impact incidents due to sole sourcing. One organization was able to eliminate a seven-figure spend of 4 Million in annual subscription fees that it was paying just to insure that it wasn’t using blacklisted or banned suppliers (and that it wasn’t working with suppliers who were known to bribe and/or be involved in anti-corruption investigations) as the Hiperos 3rd Party Management solution contained all the functionality they needed. And, overall, Hiperos’ clients saw a 300% increase in the assessment of 3rd parties with a high-breach potential — allowing them to be vetted or eliminated before a costly incident occurred.

And this is jus a short-list of costly compliance and reputational risk facing an average organization that operates globally and has to deal with ISO, SAS 70, Anti-Bribery, Anti-Money Laundering, FCPA, SOX, OCC, CFPB, REACH, WEEE, OSHA, HIPPA, and W9 security and reporting obligations, just to name a few. A third party management solution tracks all of this, and more.

So what does Hiperos do to help you with your 3rd Party Management? Stay Tuned for Part II.

Wow! Charbroiled Burgers More Environmentally Unfriendly than Clean-Diesel Trucks!

I have to admit that I was a little shocked when I came across this article on DC Velocity that referenced recent research from the University of California-Riverside that resulted in a study which found charbroiled burgers produce more particulates than clean-diesel trucks.

Specifically, if a clean-diesel 18-wheeler truck is burning ultra-low sulfer diesel fuel, it would have to travel 143 miles on the freeway to send up the same mass of particulates as a single charbroiled hamburger patty. As per this article on WSAZ News on “new california study finds more particulate emissions from charbroiled burgers than diesel trucks”, clean diesel technology is really cleaning up the trucking industry. Recent research from North Carolina State University demonstrated that trucks in compliance with newer standards showed a 98% decrease in NOx and a 94% reduction in particulate matter emissions.

The study, summarized on UCR Today, also found that commercial cooking is the second-largest source of particulate matter in the South Coast Air Basin. Looks like we need to start installing clean cooking technology now!

Anyway, this gives you something to think about that before your next trip to Hardee’s, for example.

Walmart is Supposed to have been the Retail Leader since at least 2002

… when it was listed for the first time as America’s largest corporation on the Fortune 500 list, and it’s only now understanding that if you want a sustainability initiative to take hold, you have to focus on the people and give them the right incentives.

As per this recent piece over on Bloomberg which notes that “Wal-Mart’s Green Performance Reviews Could Change Retail for Good”, Walmart’s efforts to green its supply chain are about to get much more effective because sustainability will now play a role in its merchants’ performance reviews, which help determine pay raises and potential for future promotion.

If you really want to be green, you have to put your money where your mouth is and pay for it. You have to give buyers incentive to consider sustainability, suppliers incentive to be sustainable, and everyone incentive to encourage sustainability. And, as SI has written many times, while their might be some up front costs to switch to sustainable sources, over time, sustainability will generate double-digit ROI any way you look at it.

Know What Makes an Urban Forest Master Plan Good?

I’m not 100% sure, but I am sure what makes an Urban Forest Master Plan bad. Very bad. And this wasting of 465 pages to say that saving forests is good is very, very bad. Check out the draft of the “Halifax Regional Municipality Urban Forest Master Plan”. It really does clock in at 465 pages! When this is printed and distributed to council, there goes another tree.