Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Factoring Sustainability

During a recent call with the Director of Sustainability for a large global Telecom manufacturer, we mused the growing body of metrics employed by them to measure progress against corporate sustainability goals. As discussed and publicly documented in the company’s 2009 CSR, their sustainability efforts have focused in 3 areas:

• Internal operations (supply chain, etc.)
• Product/technologies
• Corporate citizenship

Relative to the first, they have admittedly produced no large-scale monetization of carbon credits to date, but religiously conduct audits on $’s and kilowatts saved, and how their products are moved modally for example. (eg. air-to-alternative and carbon/ton-miles)

By way of introduction to these “modal" measurements, Carbonfund.org’s shipping calculator utilizes three user generated inputs to determine a unit called a ‘ton-mile’ (e.g. a ton of freight traveling 1 mile, or a half ton of freight traveling two miles, etc.):

• Total number of shipments
• Average Weight of Shipment (lbs)
• Average Shipping Distance (mi)

From this information we determine the shipment(s) ‘ton-miles’. So if you have 50 shipments (A) of 100 lbs (B) each traveling an average distance of 500 miles(C), you multiply A*B*C, 50*100*500 to get 2,500,000 lbs-miles – to get to ton-miles, divide by 2204 to get 1,134.3 ton-miles. Once you have that figure, multiply it by the appropriate emissions factor depending on how you are shipping the package. So 1134.3 ton-miles being shipped by truck (0.3725 lbs CO2 per ton-mile) gives you a total emissions of 422.52 lbs CO2. Shipping Emissions Factors:*

• Air cargo - 1.7739 lbs CO2 per Ton-Mile
• Truck - 0.3725 lbs CO2 per Ton-Mile
• Train - 0.2306 lbs CO2 per Ton-Mile
• Sea freight - 0.0887 lbs CO2 per Ton-Mile

It always comes to down to math, but solving the equation requires unprecedented visibility into inventory data, such as product weights, and material flows from location to location. And ideally, you want choices. Such as the choice to ship a replacement/spare part from Amsterdam to Barcelona, instead of Dallas to Barcelona. Trade Wings offers this level of visibility, and we’re making a difference for our Telecom customers, including Ericsson and others who have been recognized year after year for their outstanding efforts to address issues of sustainability through asset intelligence.

As a result of his company's diligence, the Director of Sustainability of the aforementioned large, global Telecom OEM reported to us that they have reduced their carbon footprint by 13% (in carbon/ton-miles) year/year.  He also left us with this observation:  As customers become more sophisticated in their environmental commitment, business imperatives will drive innovation and 'sustainability' will become synonymous with 'strategy'...and those who don't get it will be left behind.

*The calculator provides an emissions metric for shipping by Zeppelin.  I have omitted this from my list, but if prefer to know, give me a call on +1-603-766-7000.
 

Posted by Lisa Clark • Category: Green Telecoms • Permalink

Friday, May 28, 2010

Speaking the Same Language

We’ve been making the rounds in the industry analyst community, introducing many of the top firms to Trade Wings and our approach to extending the lifecycle of high-value assets. Reuse strategies may not yet be the focal point of published research but the response has been no less enthusiastic. Our perspective on the market and the value we’re able to bring to different client situations continues to be really well received.

One of the most popular discussion points to date has been sustainability. There’s a lot of interest in looking at the issue beyond efforts to simply reduce power consumption. Yesterday, for example, we had a great call with Gartner’s Bettina Tratz-Ryan and talked at length about the need for a more end-to-end approach to sustainability and ways in which companies can bridge the gap between the desire to be greener and the pressure to achieve financial metrics. As the notion of sustainable business practices becomes more entrenched within telecom companies, how well these two areas are addressed will go a long way toward determining the long-term impact of innovative programs and initiatives. To learn more about our take on sustainability and ecology management within the industry, be sure to check out this report.

Posted by Billy Balfour • Category: Green Telecoms • Permalink

Monday, March 01, 2010

Sustainable Sourcing:  One Half of a Really Good Idea

I’d say there’s little doubt that environmental stewardship is climbing the ladder of corporate priorities. Within the Telecom industry, there’s much conversation taking place around reducing the energy consumption of network devices, driven by 15 founding members of the powerful Green Touch consortium, and supported in the messaging of prominent equipment manufacturers at last month’s Mobile World Congress.

At one of the conference sessions there, ‘Moving Toward a Sustainable Green Future,’ a global carrier outlined its own corporate responsibility strategy. One of the aspects of their approach was the innovative concept of ‘Sustainable Sourcing.’ In addition to traditional factors such as price and capabilities, this company has begun to incorporate sustainability into its equipment purchasing decision-making processes. I suspect that as time goes on, we’re going to see more and more of this, with companies placing greater emphasis on the ‘greenness’ of products and services.

As positive as greener sourcing is though, it’s really only half of the equation. No matter how energy efficient a piece of Telecom equipment is when it’s manufactured, at some point in time it will be decommissioned and a lack of visibility will make it susceptible to a reverse logistics process that could have it abandoned in a warehouse consuming energy, carted from one location to another without a plan, or worse – sent to a landfill.

As we continue to explore new ways to make the Telecom industry more eco-friendly, we need to recognize that aftermarket service and supply chains, if not managed properly, can undo a lot of the good work being done on the front-end of the development and manufacturing process. A well thought-out reuse strategy provides the level of visibility into internal stocks and the global market that can help ensure those green assets are put to their highest potential throughout their useful life, and when necessary, disposed of in an environmentally-friendly manner and in full compliance with WEEE.
 

Posted by Billy Balfour • Category: Green Telecoms • Permalink