Transportation - Another Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunity  

This month we've focused our Green Edge Sustainability Lens on transportation, encouraged by memorable achievements in this sector in 2010. Looking back for a moment, by the end of 2010 consumers were finally able to choose between the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf and the pricier Tesla if they wanted to purchase an electric car, and companies such as GE pledged to buy thousands of electric cars for their fleets.  

Rail, sea and air transportation were also beneficiaries of green progress, including greater transparency on the greenhouse gas emissions of oceangoing vessels, the introduction of a biodiesel train that runs on beef by-products and the testing of emissions-reducing technology for commercial aircraft.

Back on the ground, there are sure to be opportunities to reduce the transportation-related carbon footprint of your company. Here are some examples of what one company, IKEA, is doing to reduce the transportation component of their carbon footprint.

Let us know if we can help you reduce yours.

Transportation is a big contributor to the carbon footprint of IKEA, a global furniture manufacturer/retailer headquartered in Sweden. With over $31B in annual revenues and more than 100,000 employees, IKEA sources and sells products throughout the world.

Moving Products

Smart packaging has been a focus for IKEA for over 50 years. One of the first companies to embrace what we now refer to as sustainability, IKEA was aware of the importance of minimizing its packaging as early as 1956, when it designed its LÖVET table with removable legs so it would pack flat. Many other packaging initiatives were adopted over the years, resulting in IKEA's ability to move more products with less miles traveled. IKEA projects that its constant focus on packaging innovation will result in a 6.3% reduction in its transportation-related carbon footprint by 2012.

Moving People

In addition to smart packaging solutions, IKEA is striving to reduce the number of car trips to and from its stores by customers and employees.  Its overall global goal is that 15% of its customers leave their cars home and use other forms of transportation. To achieve this goal, IKEA has created pilot programs on three continents and has partnered with local municipalities, NGOs and business consortiums. Initiatives include improved public transportation, environmentally friendly home delivery services and free shuttle buses and ferry service. In Denmark, customers can borrow bicycles with trailers to bring their purchases home. In 2009 IKEA reported that it had passed the halfway mark as 10% of its global customers used a form of transportation other than their cars for store trips.

Moving Vendors

IKEA's transportation footprint also involves hundreds of service providers who transport its products by road, rail and sea between suppliers, distribution centers and stores. To address this aspect of its transportation footprint, IKEA requires its transportation service providers to meet its general IWAY Code of Conduct for vendors as well as transportation-specific requirements.  These include the use of modern vehicles that meet emission targets and measure their carbon dioxide emissions. Transportation service providers are audited on a regular basis to ensure compliance. IKEA reports close to 100% compliance, noting in their 2009 CSR Report that "the transport industry is very responsive to demands from customers and society within the ... environmental area."

To reduce your company's transportation-related carbon footprint, consider how the products you sell, and your customers, are transported to and from your company and by whom.  Armed with this information, we can help you identify carbon hot spots and initiatives to cool them down.  

It's another opportunity to be part of the climate change solution.