Green Your Work by Kim Carlson

Author:Kim Carlson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Adams Media, an F+W Media Company
Published: 2009-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Greening the Fleet—

Moving People and Product

According to The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the single most environmentally damaging consumer behavior is the use of cars, SUVs, and pickups. This isn’t surprising. We are all guilty. Our love affair with driving and our need to move things from here to there causes toxic air pollution, smog, and greenhouse gas. Gas and oil spills as well as leaky vehicles are a major source of water pollution, as are the production of the vehicles and the petroleum to run them. So anything that we can do to help our employees drive less is an important step in environmental protection.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s web-site ( www.epa.gov ), 35 billion gallons of diesel fuel is used to deliver goods by truck and rail each year, generating nearly 350 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2). Idling trucks and rail are responsible for about 20 percent of the CO 2 emissions. Idling means that they are sitting still and getting zero miles to the gallon but are powering heaters or air conditioners for driver sleeping or refrigerator units for the cargo. Unfortunately, fuel consumption for transportation directly correlates to the amount of emissions that pollute the air. It follows that reducing fuel consumption will cut greenhouse gas and smog emissions too.

Transportation is necessary for business. So critical is it, in fact, that we rarely see how much we are contributing to the problem. But every time you move people, materials, or products, you are creating further damage to the earth. On the other hand, this means that every day you have a new opportunity to be a part of the solution. Increasing oil prices seem to be creating a new and growing awareness about opportunities in green logistics. A tremendous amount of investment dollars are going into greener transportation alternatives, and we should see big progress in this area over the next ten to twenty years. But why wait? There are things your business can do right now to reduce the environmental impacts of transportation.

This chapter will give you several solutions you can implement immediately—simple things that you can try. Much of greening a business can be compared to an exercise program—anything that you can do is better than sitting on the couch doing nothing. Much like exercise, it is the small unglamorous things that will most improve your gas mileage and reduce your emissions. Exciting, yet uncomplicated, solutions are popping up around the globe.

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