Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 2. Direct Carbon Footprint of Tesco (TESCO 2010)
The most widespread practice in green trans-
portation may well be the reduction of emissions.
Management programs to reduce transportation-
related emissions level have become common
worldwide, with the carbon footprint used as the
primary reference measurement. This measure
computes the level of CO
2
emissions produced
by the manufacturing and transportation process
through the entire value chain. An example of
a firm employing this practice is Tesco, one of
the world's largest retailers. Tesco presented its
suppliers with a plan to include the carbon foot-
print index in their product labels. Conscious of
customers' increasing environmental awareness,
Tesco is attempting to anticipate the current
trend and to prepare the entire value chain for
the carbon footprint information that customers
demand. Tesco realizes that in a few years, the
carbon footprint index will be a key determinant
of consumer choice in deciding whether to buy or
not to buy a product. Figure 2 shows how Tesco
conceives its responsibility and how the company
measures the carbon footprint.
In addition to the carbon footprint, Tesco also
establishes specific corporate goals regarding the
energy efficiency it hopes to achieve by reducing
its energy consumption and by implementing
recycling and reduction of packaging waste pro-
grams. The idea behind these initiatives is not
only to know the level of carbon emissions, but
also to make suppliers compete based on reducing
their emissions and energy consumption. With
this approach, Tesco does not need to restructure
the value chain, but only encourage suppliers to
introduce and improve their own processes by
using these measurements as a strategic objective
within their business.
The main green practices in transportation are
(Carter & Jennings 2000):
•
Clean vehicles/fuel efficiency:
the con-
cept of clean vehicles focuses on ways
to ensure that transportation methods do
not leak fluids, i.e. oil, gas, coolant, etc.
Maintenance programs are an important
way of controlling and reducing contami-
nation emanating from the company. To
help fleet managers make appropriate
choices when it comes to fuel consump-
tion and minimizing waste from vehicle
maintenance, the North Carolina Division
of Pollution Prevention and Environmental
Assistance (DPPEA) has investigated sev-
eral new technologies that address aspects
such as: use of alternative fuels, fuel cata-
