Joe Gallick, vice president of sales with Penske Logistics, reveals some of the dramatic benefits his company has realized, on its own behalf as well as that of customers, by signing up with the ambitious program to slash energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Business is going green because of pressure from government and consumers. But the push for sustainability can also aid in controlling costs at a time of economic crisis, says Joe Martha, vice president of Booz-Allen Hamilton.

All supply chains -- whether moving physical goods, delivering services or channeling money - are subject to increasingly extreme swings in volatility, says Richard Douglass, global industry executive for manufacturing at Sterling Commerce. Douglass contributed to a new book from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals on how companies can deal with this constant volatility: X-treme Supply Chains: Managing in Times of Upheaval.

When Intel decided to enter the low-cost chip market with its Atom microprocessor, a small form-factor product made for notebook computers and mobile internet devices, it needed a much lower-cost supply chain than the one that serviced its high-end products. The company achieved this goal by shortening its cycle time enough to enable a build-to-order strategy, explains Jim Kellso, senior supply chain master at Intel.