Food Logistics serves the entire food supply chain industry with targeted content for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.
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To be fair, Top Green Providers is a subjective list. How does one truly determine if a company is sustainable or not and is a stand- out among competitors when the applicants represent so many sec- tors — transportation, warehous- ing, food manufacturing, software and technology, and logistics, for instance? Of course, achievements that are quantifiable and recognized by peers and customers are a starting point. Participation in the EPA's SmartWay program is one way that companies earn recognition for their sustainability efforts. Increasingly, however, sustain- ability is an attitude, a philosophy and a mindset that infiltrates a company's culture, flowing both top-down and bottom-up, and affecting the most basic aspects of an operation to the most sophis- ticated. Ideally, sustainability becomes internalized for an orga- nization and its employees, rather than something external. It's not surprising that compa- nies who are sincerely committed to fundamentally and relentlessly pursuing a more sustainable sup- ply chain become masterful at finding opportunities for improvements. For example, a company might begin with a goal to reduce fuel consumption or transportation costs — an obvi- ous starting point for many in our industry. If they're an asset- based company with a fleet, they are undoubtedly looking at equip- ment (trailers, refrigeration units, aerodynamic enhancements, etc.), engines, driver behavior and per- formance, and implementation of software and technology tools to optimize the transportation piece of their business. But, green thinking doesn't stop there. Companies who embrace sustainability continually look for other ways to lighten their carbon and water footprint. Perhaps that means incorporating rail into their transportation strategy, or adding alternative fuel vehicles to their fleets. Maybe engaging customers to co-load shipments as a way to reduce deadhead miles, or work- ing with them to improve package design or composition to optimize shipment capacity and reduce damage and costs. At the same time, food com- panies too are making meaning- ful gains to reduce waste during production and processing, while grocers and restaurants are also making progress on this front. This is what it means to be sus- tainable: taking the first step and then systematically and methodi- cally working outwards from that initial entrance point to uncover even more ways to improve and change. But, what's next when it comes to sustainability in the supply chain and why does sustainabil- ity matter now more than ever? 14 JUNE 2014 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com Green leadership in the food logistics industry from farm to fork. B y L A R A L . S O W I N S K I What it Means to be The world needs a paradigm shift in agricultural development from a "green revolution" to an "ecological intensification approach, says UNCTAD. S ustainability in the food supply chain is a topic that Food Logistics covers extensively, from our print product to daily e-newsletters and blogs. Each June, we profle companies who are tak- ing a leadership role in sustainability with our Top Green Providers list. © iStockphoto/Thinkstock FLOG_14-17_0614 Sustainable.indd 14 6/12/14 8:54 AM