ASSIGNMENT-01

(GREEN LOGISTICS)
1. What is Green Logistics?
Green logistics, in the context of humanitarian logistics encourages all stakeholders to
consider the impact of their actions on the environment. The main objective of Green
logistics is to coordinate the activities within a supply chain in such a way that beneficiary
needs are met at "least cost" to the environment. It is a principle component of reverse
logistics. In the past cost has been defined in purely monetary terms, whereas "cost" can
now also be understood as the external costs of logistics associated with: climate change, air
pollution, dumping waste (including packaging waste), soil degradation, noise, vibration and
accidents.
Green or sustainable logistics is concerned with reducing environmental and other negative
impacts associated with the movement of supplies. Green supply chains seek to reduce
negative environmental impact by redesigning sourcing/distribution systems and managing
reverse logistics to eliminate inefficiencies.
For example, logistics deals with packaging of materials. Packaging represents one of the
greatest challenges to environmental friendly logistics while at the same time being vital in
shipping and storage.
Correct or incorrect packaging has consequences on the transportation, storage and volume of
materials in a given space. This can increase to the unit cost if the packaging hinders
optimization of storage space. Many industries have developed forms of packaging that do all
that is required of them in transit but do not justify the expense of returning them to the point
of origin. This packaging is only used once and then discarded.It is this type of packaging
that presents the greatest challenge to logisticians, increasingly, there is a responsibility for
the supplier and the buyer to recover and recycle or effectively dispose of packaging.

2. What are the measures adopted by firms to achieve Green Logistics? Briefly explain
with suitable examples.
a. Physical Distribution/ Transportation: To combat what would have meant an increase in emissions from logistics had Phillips not
taken action, they applied a multi-facet approach.
First of all, they focus on reducing the need of transportation movements. This has been
accomplished via a number of different means, including logistic network redesign, coloading, and consolidation of goods and equipment to increase loading degree.
Secondly they drive modal shifts where possible. The environmental impact of airfreighting
goods from Asia to Western Europe is about 34 times greater than transporting it by ocean.
Stage-gate processes have successfully been implemented requiring higher management

approval before a decision can be taken to transport products by airplane. Also intermediary
solutions are considered. For example, recently Philips has implemented transport by rail
from inland China to Russian end-customers when changing circumstances meant ocean
transport was no longer feasible. Also multimodal approaches to deliver heavy bulky
healthcare equipment to remote locations are a great success. Previously, charter planes were
used to transport MRI machines from large international airport hubs to the final remote
location, due to the equipments sensitivity to conditions during ocean transport.
Last but not least they work with partner organizations to identify the most environmentally
friendly logistics providers and engage them on taking actions to reduce their climate change
impact. For example, they are members of Green Freight Europe and the Clean Shipping
Index. Also, on November 1st 2015, they signed a Carbon Pact with Maersk Line, one of
their strategic logistical partners, to reduce Philips' CO2 emissions per container moved with
Maersk Line by 20% from 2016 - 2020. (Phillips- Official Website)
b. Reverse Distribution (Recycling and reuse): Phillips produces a wide range of electronic consumer goods. Many of their product lines
such as electric toothbrushes, shavers, and baby bottles must be disposed of with strict
environmental guidelines for managing those returns. Phillips partnered with Ryder hat
helped achieve an 80% ratio of refurbishment and re-use of returns (Partridge, 2011, para.
41). Ryder assesses the product return to determine if the product is resalable or
malfunctioning and decide on whether it is cost efficient to repair them for resale or dispose
of them. If the product cannot be resold, they disassemble and sort parts reusing what they
can, and working with recyclers for responsible disposal in an environmentally friendly way.
Ryders focus is to provide the greatest value to Phillips from returned assets while
maintaining green logistics initiatives.
c. Better Packing and packaging: The conventional focus of product development is the improvement of its commercial and
competitive attributes such as price, quality, features and performance. This process is
common for electronic goods as each new generation of a product (e.g. computers, phones,
televisions) is quantitatively and qualitatively better. For instance, the second generation of
the iPad has the same display surface (246 mm diagonal) than the first generation, but is 16%
lighter (600 grams versus 712 grams), 33% thinner (8.8 mm versus 13.4 mm), is more
performing (CPU and graphic display speed) and has more features (e.g. front and back
cameras). Products are increasingly being considered from a supply chain perspective,
namely their sourcing and distribution. The final assembly of a consumer goods such as an
iPad is performed in Shenzhen, China and then the boxed finished product is shipped by air
transport to consumers around the world. This implies that air transportation costs are an
important component of the total logistics costs of the product. In addition to the weight
improvements of the second generation iPad, efforts have been made to reduce its packaging
dimensions. The outcome is a box which is 10% lighter and has 18% less volume, both being
important considerations for air shipping. Keeping air transportation costs constant, it is

therefore possible to ship 11 iPad 2s with the same weight / volume price ratio than 10 iPad
1s.