Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
can operate without the need of lighting
contributing to the reduction in energy
consumption.
•
Minimization of inventories:
the es-
sence of warehousing is the maintenance
of inventories. An efficient operation can
lead companies to reduce the inventories
to their minimum required level, reducing
at the same time the corresponding opera-
tions. In addition, inventories usually hide
inefficiencies: Toyota, famous for the in-
troduction of the just-in-time system (JIT),
which allows the company to minimize the
number of goods in inventory, reduced its
errors, waste and inventories, making the
system more environmentally friendly.
•
Facility design:
another means of green-
ing warehouse operations is related to the
building itself. The construction of the fa-
cilities is crucial to the level of energy and
other resource consumption required in the
future. The use of solar walls, natural light-
ing, warming systems, adequate floors, etc.
is important and directly affects the level
of energy needed for the operation of the
warehouse. In special cases like refrigerat-
ed storage, such aspects become even more
important. At this type of facility, several
aspects must be taken into account in order
to make them environmentally friendly:
thicker floors, walls and roof; the use of in-
bound and outbound conveyors with lock
gates for pallets instead of doors; the se-
lection of the right compressor and cooler;
appropriate choice of components for the
refrigeration process; the application of
speed control for compressors; advanced
lightning methods; adequate pipe dimen-
sion and insulation; defrosting using hot
gas and computerized control systems all
help achieve this goal (Duiven & Binard
2002).
•
On-site recycling:
this is not just part of
warehousing, but often extends through-
out the entire company. The main idea is
to promote recycling of products, materi-
als and packaging within the warehouse.
Training of workers and the commitment
of the company's management are required
conditions to succeed in this practice.
•
Product disposition:
within warehousing,
it is common to find obsolete products and
materials retained for long periods. One
green logistics practice is to find alterna-
tive uses for stock that is no longer use-
ful for its primary purpose. These products
are re-used as materials for other type of
operations, sold in secondary markets, re-
paired, refurbished, etc. This helps to mini-
mize required storage space and energy
consumption.
As stated in “Economic and Social Value of
Green Logistics”, cost is one of the main barri-
ers to implementing green logistics practices in
emerging economies, implying that less costly
practices are more prevalent in these countries.
However, cases of successful use of high technol-
ogy in emerging economies exist: in Colombia
for instance, Copidrogas, one of the country's
main pharmacy chains, created an Automatic
Warehousing System with excellent results for
its operations.
Value Added Services
Value added services are the third type of opera-
tions considered within this analysis. Since out-
sourcing is currently still one of the main trends
in logistics, several value added services have
evolved to meet the logistical needs of companies.
Some of these services help to improve the logis-
tics process in such a way that companies benefit
from loss reduction and process improvement.
This is another way that companies are greening
their logistics activities.
A major concern for companies is that any mis-
take or loss through the chain will trigger contin-
