Desire To Be Thought Leader Drives Green Efforts

Forty-one percent of companies that participated in a recent Aberdeen study, Building a Green Supply Chain: Social Responsibility for Fun and Profit, have had green supply chain initiatives in place for 1-2 years, and thirty-nine percent have redesigned key parts of their supply chains to be green.

Against this backdrop, the top four pressures driving companies to focus on green/sustainable supply chain programs today are the desire to be a thought leader for green and sustainability initiatives in their industry and markets (51% of companies), the need to control rising fuel and energy costs (49% of companies), the demands to improve competitive advantage and market differentiation (48% of companies), followed by the requirement to meet current and expected government regulatory and compliance demands (31% of companies).

Results show that:

• The Best-in-Class achieved a 2% decrease in their overall logistics and transport costs, versus one percent increase for Industry Average, and a four percent increase for Laggards.
• Best-in-Class companies achieved a six percent decrease in energy costs, versus no change for Industry Average and a seven percent increase for Laggards.
• Best-in-Class companies are 1.5 times more likely than all others to have implemented cross-functional metrics across their enterprise.
• Best-in-Class achieved a two percent decrease in the cost of operations and facilities, versus no change for Industry Average and a four percent increase for Laggards.