Last month's overwhelming approval of new anti-greenwashing rules by the European Parliament signals a turning point for supply chains. Companies are now expressly banned from making misleading or exaggerated environmental claims to consumers. This directive shines a light on the need for transparent, sustainable logistics operations. 

 For too long, the logistics sector has grappled with wasteful, outdated processes and workflows that severely undermine sustainability initiatives. Everything from paper-based safety reports getting lost in bureaucratic handoffs to a lack of real-time asset tracking obscures critical data on environmental impact. This antiquated status quo has to change across the industry.

The numbers make the challenge clear: Upwards of 90% of an organization's total carbon emissions stem from its extended supply chain operations. However, the combination of overstock, product damage, spoilage and unnecessary returns plaguing many businesses makes it extremely difficult to accurately measure and report this impact. Globally, supply chains discard $163 billion worth of inventory annually due to oversupply, mishandling and waste.

If logistics leaders are to comply with anti-greenwashing rules and meet the increasing demand from eco-conscious consumers, they must urgently prioritize automated technologies that optimize operations and provide the full transparency needed to calculate true sustainability metrics.   

A powerful and readily achievable first step is the use of connected internet of things (IoT) sensors and devices to gain real-time visibility into inventory levels, asset utilization rates and product handling across every node of warehouse and distribution networks. By strategically implementing IoT-enabled systems for inventory tracking and asset management, organizations gain unprecedented data to optimize stock levels, routing, and environmental controls. In the process, they prevent oversupply, product damage, spoilage and obsolescence, along with and the emissions associated with those issues. 

 IoT data is also vital to calculating total supply chain emissions, energy usage across facilities, transportation-related impacts and waste quantities. Without granular asset-level insight, businesses are left guessing at their true carbon footprint. Automated, IoT-enabled data gathering removes the uncertainty from sustainability reporting and goal setting in this new era of heightened greenwashing scrutiny.

Beyond IoT connectivity, digitizing and optimizing manual, paper-based processes represent another major opportunity area. When logistics workflows rely on physical documentation being manually created, distributed and shuffled across departments, steps inevitably get missed, costly delays occur, and assets can't be properly tracked throughout their journey. 

By embracing user-friendly mobile workflow apps for everything from proof of delivery to safety checks to exception reporting, supply chains can streamline operations down to the last mile while capturing data in real-time on product status, handling mishaps and delay root causes. This level of operational visibility lets logistics leaders quickly identify and fix process bottlenecks, determine where robotics might be appropriate, and provide full transparency on sustainability metrics and initiatives.

Companies can further reduce transportation emissions, fuel waste and overall energy inefficiency by combining IoT asset tracking and paperless mobile workflows with AI-powered route optimization software.

Looking ahead, advanced warehouse automation such as autonomous mobile robots, AI-driven robotic sortation systems and automated storage will play an ever-larger role in sustainable operations. Goods-to-person robotics, along with workflow automation utilizing machine learning, represent a huge opportunity to reduce energy consumption and product handling.

As truly next-generation as these robotic and AI systems are, however, it's critical that companies carefully account for the full environmental impact of automation equipment procurement and deployment. Raw materials, manufacturing processes, emissions, longevity and end-of-life recyclability must all be factored into total sustainability assessments. Robotics and automation vendors looking to make a true impact must go beyond incremental improvements, making considered design choices and business decisions with a strong circular economy mindset.

Taking the first step, by laying an IoT-enabled automated foundation for real-time asset tracking and visibility, is crucial. Companies acting decisively now will position themselves for the best outcomes in this new era of sustainability accountability and operational excellence. 

Marcus Jeffrey is UK&I territory manager with Ivanti Wavelink.