More and more companies are choosing to invest in green building practices, enjoying quick returns on investments that pay off in profit and public opinion. And the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Certification Program is allowing companies to make their newer, greener policies official.

When it comes to e-commerce, competing with Amazon is the name of the game, says Ian Hobkirk, managing director of Commonwealth Supply Chain Advisors. Here, he shares his views on the degree of the difficulty of taking on the e-tailing giant and on the future of online commerce in general.

"New business reality." That's an apt way to describe the position of any company that has just emerged from four years of reorganization under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy law. And it's precisely the challenge that Delphi Automotive faced back in 2009, when it sought to reinvent itself and shore up relations with an army of suppliers.