Even before the coronavirus pandemic, we had seen an unacceptable number of companies break one of the most fundamental principles of running a distribution center: keeping employees healthy and safe.
From smart cartonization to last-mile delivery and beyond, supply chains offer fertile ground for new technologies to improve sustainability by trimming wasted fuel, materials and time.
Without new technologies, it will be impossible to rein in emissions from the most-carbon intensive sectors of the economy such as heavy industry and long-distance transport.
The Port of Rotterdam is testing technology to manage and trade renewable energy consumption, finding the effort has already made a significant cost savings.
With companies relying increasingly on complex global supply chains, their need for verifiable manufacturing ethics and supplier transparency is growing.
The first glimpse is emerging of a levy the European Union is drawing up to ensure its Green Deal environmental rules aren’t undone by nations with weaker standards.
The global battery market will be worth about $116 billion a year by 2030 — up from around $28 billion now. But the U.S. is on course to capture only a small piece of that.
As if damage to people and supply chains by the coronavirus pandemic and economic freefall weren’t bad enough, add to it the greater difficulty of monitoring human rights violations in distant farms and factories.