Category Archives: Going Green

Another DUH! Report … but I Like It!

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A recent article in Industry Week pointed out that a recent “report blames petroleum industry for 25% of toxic pollutants”. More specifically, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) reported that 90% of toxic pollutants in North America came from fifteen industries, with over 25% coming from the U.S. Petroleum Industry. We need to extract cleaner, refine cleaner, and burn cleaner.

Because, when you combine this with the fact that global shipping is responsible for almost 4% of all climate change emissions worldwide, things get scary. So next time you get to choose a power source, choose a clean one. Once carbon credits take effect, it will be cheaper in the long run.

Rub The Red From Your Bottom Line By Going Green

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Industry Week recently ran a great article on why “going green can mean less red for your bottom line”. The article quoted some great statistics from a recent Economist Intelligence Unit study that found that companies undertaking green initiatives as part of a strategy to cut costs and increase profits are

  • much stronger than their closest competitors in their ability to find and exploit new opportunities (20% compared to 11%),
  • much more profitable (24% compared to 13%), and
  • ahead in revenue growth (23% compared 11%).

In other words, green-based initiatives are twice as likely to increase your revenue, increase your profit, and increase the new opportunities available to you. In other words, going green yields more green in your pocket.

The article also pointed out a recent WSJ article that detailed an academic group’s independent confirmation that a Subaru auto plant in Indiana not only decreased solid waste by 99% but saved millions in the process by undertaking appropriately chosen green initiatives.

And the article pointed out that you don’t need to undertake massive efforts to get massive results. You can start with a series of small efforts and the collective results will yield big savings, which you can then put towards bigger efforts down the road. For example, regular maintenance on the right equipment will cut energy costs 20% to 30%. Compressed air systems are a prime example. Small part failures and minor leaks alone can increase energy utilization requirements up to 30%.

For more great ideas, see previous green category posts.

A Few More Ways to Go Green and Save Cost and Energy

Last fall, Industry Week ran a good article on “getting the green light” that outlined some good ways to go green and save green at the end of the article that I haven’t covered yet, and in one case, even thought about before. Cutting right to the chase:

  • Install Alternate Power Units (APUs) in Private fleetsfor heaters, air conditioners, etc. in sleeper units. This can cut engine idling time by up to 80%.
  • Efficiently Route and Load Transportation
    Reduce out of route and empty miles, increase cube utilization, and emphasize multi-stop shipments.
  • Near-Source Air-Intensive Components
    If you receive plastic bottles or packaging in un-blown, test-tube format, blow them into shape on-site, reducing the number of truckloads required to deliver the bottles or packing to the plant by up to 90%.

For more ideas, see the article.

The Total Cost of Ownership Equation in a Green Economy

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A recent article on building an actionable framework for “Green Purchasing” did a great job of outlining the the true total cost of ownership calculation for any purchase when sustainability is taken into account. Simply put:
TCO = Purchase Cost + Overhead + Environmental Costs + Social Consequences where

  • Overhead Costs and operating costs include:
    • labor requirements
    • utility costs
    • maintenance costs
    • rent
    • depreciation
    • production/utilization costs
  • Environmental Costs include:
    • regulatory reporting costs
    • remediation
    • pollution control costs
    • waste management costs
    • unused inventory disposal costs
    • labeling
    • environmental insurance
    • accident cleanup costs
    • future compliance costs
  • Social Consequence Costs include:
    • customer relationship costs
    • regulator relationship costs
    • lender relationship costs
    • worker health and safety costs
    • corporate image and brand costs
    • litigation costs

In other words, the best price is not the best price if:

  • the product costs more to use, maintain, and own
  • the product costs more to insure, dispose of, and clean-up after
  • the product could damage your reputation with customers, lenders, and regulators.

Go Green with Enterprise Content Management and Save

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Regular readers know I’m a big fan of green and an avid promoter of Enterprise Contract Management due to the many advantages it provides including reduced contract management costs, decreased maverick spend, reduced overpayments, IP management, etc., but in an even bigger picture, Enterprise Contract Management is a subset of Enterprise Content Management. If you also adopt an Enterprise Content Management Solution to manage all of the documents, and knowledge, you produce in addition to contracts, you can save a considerable amount of money each year on paper, printing, storage, and document shipping costs … which, for many larger organizations, is well into the the six figures. While small change to what an Enterprise Contract Management Solution that enforces on-contract buying (which in turn realizes the millions in savings your buyers negotiated), it’s still a considerable amount of change, as there are many good, open source, content management solutions you can use for free and save enough to retain a few more valuable employees in these tough times.

There are a number of reasons to go green with Enterprise Content Management, and a recent article in Integrated Solutions Magazine listed the top 6 reasons presented by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM). They are:

  1. Save On Paper and Shipping
    A large company can save 50K to 500K on paper and 50K to 200K on paper delivery and document shipping costs each year.
  2. Increase the Effectiveness of Core Processes
    Your people can find what they need when they need it.
  3. Truly Integrate Your Field Operations
    No longer is the bulk of knowledge confined to those in the main office.
  4. Reduce Real Estate Costs
    Less paper requires less filing cabinets which reduces the physical space you need just to store paper.
  5. Improve Employee Productivity
    Not only can your people access what they need when they need it, but they can access the information where they need it.
  6. Reduce off-site storage costs.
    Instead of a warehouse, all you need is a storage box that can hold a few backup tapes or hard-drives, just in case your on-line backup goes down.