The Rise of Sustainable Logistics: Redefining Industry Standards and Careers
Introduction
Sustainability in logistics, also known as green logistics, refers to the incorporation of environmentally responsible practices into a business model. Sustainable logistics “is essentially about making logistics, freight and transportation more sustainable, by minimizing the environmental impact of the practices involved in these processes.” As the world continues to face significant environmental challenges, a push towards adopting a sustainable supply chain is growing in importance.
The world’s sustainability crisis is evident. People are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact that businesses have on the environment and “consumers today are more environmentally conscious than ever before.” It goes without saying that the transportation required to handle the logistics of global supply chains creates significantly negative environmental impacts. The carbon footprints required to move goods from southeast Asia to America not only is a massive logistical hurdle but also produces greenhouse emissions that need to be curbed.
Business paradigms are shifting by adopting environmentally conscious practices within their supply chains. Job opportunities and skill requirements within the supply chain are altered by the integration of sustainable practices in logistics. This is reshaping the industry as industries prioritize environmentally responsible practices. Supply chain employers are increasingly attracted to candidates with sustainability experience and qualifications. The shift has redefined career prospects and hiring priorities in the industry.
Staying Ahead with Sustainability: How Green Initiatives Drive Competitive Advantage
An article published by Forbes states that, “As environmentally friendly practices become common, companies that ignore sustainability may risk being left behind.” Environmental regulations are evolving as society becomes more geared towards adopting green initiatives. Because of this inevitable shift, implementing sustainability efforts is a great strategy for businesses that are looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve and position themselves as leaders within their industry.
Taking green initiatives is a great strategy for businesses to acquire a positive brand image. Showcasing an initiative to protect the environment puts a positive spotlight on a company’s reputation, increasing their ability to attract customers, investors, and employees. People want to support businesses that care about the impact they have on others and take initiatives to ensure that impact is positive. Job seekers whose values align with green initiatives are more likely to seek opportunities with brands that showcase efforts towards this cause. Seeing that a company cares about more than just a profit also provides a sense of security to potential applicants. In turn, job seekers are more likely to apply for positions at companies that value environmental efforts over their competitors that don’t.
Challenges in Adopting Sustainable Practices
Sustainability practices, especially in logistics, are essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the supply chain. Appropriately aligning these green logistics efforts across an entire organization and not just in the Environmental Social Governance (ESG) silo ensures a successful deployment of needed change.
There are pros and cons to everything, and taking this proactive approach doesn’t always come without challenges. VP of ESG at Prime Data Centers, Sarah Martinez, shared a few of the common hurdles that she has seen companies face in their initiative to go green. One being “a lack of meaningful executive buy-in.” It can be difficult when top executives aren’t fully onboard with sustainability efforts. If they’re not showing support, it makes it difficult to gain traction and get the ball rolling.
Martinez explains that “in these instances, it is important to understand executive priorities and how sustainability initiatives could help address them.” For example, if brand relevance is a concern, then implementing sustainability efforts to boost the brand’s image with customers can be a compelling suggestion. Showcasing data and demonstrating how sustainability will contribute to the company’s success is a great way to get executives on board with adopting sustainable practices.
“From there, how can the sustainability team collaborate with others in the organization to support and amplify their efforts? In these conversations, often framing sustainability initiatives as either value-creating or risk-reducing can be helpful,” says Martinez.
Another challenge that Martinez says many companies face when taking on green initiatives is not having enough resources to effectively execute sustainability efforts. It’s important for the sustainability team to work closely with other parts of the company in order to get each department involved. Martinez explains that oftentimes sustainability teams don’t have the size and capacity to tackle the workload alone, so it’s crucial to engage different teams to make tasks realistically manageable and bring sustainability to life. An example she provides is, if a real estate company wants to get green building certifications, it will happen at a much faster rate if the development team takes charge of that process, rather than leaving it all to the sustainability lead. Incorporating sustainability efforts into each department makes reaching those goals much more realistic and smooth.
While challenges exist in the implementation of sustainable practices, supply chain logistics practices also offer an immense opportunity. Lee Beard, SVP of Logistics with Swire Coca Cola cites numerous instances where logisticians can increase sustainable practices that will have significantly positive environmental impacts.
“We have a natural opportunity in the logistics space” to work on sustainability. “The things that we’re doing in logistics are naturally things that are good for the environment. Running fewer miles – filling up trucks and being more efficient. Load optimization, truck to rail conversion, those types of things reduce carbon,” says Beard.
Beard continues by emphasizing that logistics leaders need to embrace that aspect to their role. “Recognition of the role and opportunity that the supply chain has to play [in sustainability] is important. We’re doing a lot of stuff with electric vehicles, and such. We’re not standing idly by and we want to play a leadership role for our company” in sustainability.
Like Martinez, Beard says that leadership is required in order for sustainable practices to take hold. However, he observes that if any field can thrive in leading this charge, it can be logistics.
The Growing Value of Sustainability Expertise in Supply Chain Jobs
Sustainable logistics practices are reshaping job opportunities within the supply chain and logistics talent landscape. Businesses becoming progressively eco-conscious have resulted in industries across the globe adopting environmentally friendly agendas. New roles like sustainability managers and green logistics coordinators have emerged, altering the talent landscape across the supply chain as qualifications in sustainability become increasingly attractive to employers seeking supply chain talent.
As demand increases for candidates with experience in supply chain sustainability, green technologies, and regulatory compliance, the industry is seeing a shift in skills requirements. It’s important for all supply chain professionals to continue ongoing education and training in order to stay up to date with current events and maintain their competitive advantage in a supply chain landscape that is rapidly evolving towards sustainable practices.
Transportation and logistics hiring managers want candidates with green logistics experience. This poses an opportunity for job seekers who are looking for ways to set themselves apart by acquiring the necessary competencies. The 2023 LinkedIn Global Green Skills Report stated the “increase in demand for green skills is outpacing the increase in supply, raising the prospect of an imminent green skills shortage; Between 2022 and 2023 alone, the share of green talent in the workforce rose by a median of 12.3% across the 48 countries we examined, while the share of job postings requiring at least one green skill grew nearly twice as quickly — by a median of 22.4%.”
In other words, the need to find employees with qualifications in sustainability continues to increase but the amount of competent candidates isn’t matching up. Having expertise in this area such as knowledge of green technologies or the ability to gather and interpret data analytics for environmental impact, is a wonderful way to stand out in a competitive job market.
As hiring strategies evolve to prioritize candidates with sustainability credentials, possessing green skills is growing in value to more than just sustainability departments alone.
Martinez explains that “organizations are increasingly recognizing that sustainability is relevant to many roles, beyond ones that officially have ‘sustainability’ in their title. The most successful sustainability programs are focused on integrating considerations of environmental and social impacts into everyday operations – throughout the organization.”
For sustainability programs to work effectively, it’s key to make green efforts a part of every department’s job, rather than leaving it all to the sustainability department alone. Martinez states that, “If left in an organizational silo, a sustainability program will not be successful.” She explains that this is because efforts aren’t as effective when they’re kept separate, and goes on to say that “companies are recognizing that sustainability experience can enhance many candidates’ overall appeal” and companies now value sustainability expertise in a variety of different roles. An example Martinez provides is procurement professionals being asked to gather information on environmental impacts or social programs from their suppliers. “Fluency in supply chain sustainability can therefore help a candidate stand out from peers without such experience.”
Conclusion: The Future with Sustainable Logistics
The incorporation of sustainable logistics efforts is revolutionizing the supply chain landscape, cultivating a new era of environmentally responsible practices and reshaping career prospects and job opportunities within the industry. As business practices shift towards expanding the amount of sustainable policies in place, they not only contribute to environmental protection but also gain a competitive edge by aligning with consumer values and regulatory demands.
Potential challenges are presented when adopting new measures of sustainability. Difficulties securing the approval from executives and appropriately dispersing sustainability tasks across different teams within a company are just some of the potential obstacles. There are also a wide range of benefits that companies acquire as a result of adopting green initiatives. Enhanced brand image and attraction from top talent are chief among them. As the demand for green skills continues to outpace supply, professionals with competencies in sustainability are becoming increasingly valuable and desired by supply chain professionals, making ongoing education and adaptation crucial for success in supply chain. Logistics offers ample opportunity to dramatically reduce carbon footprints and greenhouse emissions. Things like load optimizations and truck to rail conversions are efficiencies that are already taking place in the logistics practice. Logisticians are well positioned for this increased emphasis on sustainable business practices. Ultimately, the integration of sustainability into every aspect of business operations is not just a trend but a necessary evolution, promising a greener and more resilient future for the supply chain industry.
