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India celebrates National Energy Conservation Day every year on December 14. Ever since the Energy Conservation Act was executed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in 2001, this day has been celebrated to raise awareness on limiting energy loss.
What is energy conservation?
Energy conservation implies using less energy by avoiding its unnecessary use or being more efficient in our power consumption. Today, as we celebrate the 21st National Energy Conservation Day, we take a look at how logistics and the supply chain industry is bringing in energy efficiency in its operations.
Logistics, an essential segment of our economy efficiently manages the flow of materials and products between various nodes that operate in multiple systems. The process of moving and storing goods consumes significant energy resources and emits greenhouse gases that harm the environment.
This requires the industry to be energy efficient, which as a performance measure, refers to energy use in activities such as transport and warehousing. What we are observing now, is that the industry is asked to demonstrate that they are acting in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way.
While in the early days, companies presenting corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, detailing what they have done over the year was enough, those expectations have now heightened. The logistics and supply chain industry is now required to closely examine their operations as consumers get more cautious not only about what they buy but also about the source. They want to know that not only the product but also the story behind the product is environment friendly and sustainable.
This means companies are now required to strike the right balance between delivering the right product (that is of good quality) and the logistics performance for sustainability, which is tricky.
But what comes as a piece of good news is that companies are doing their bit to achieve sustainability and energy efficiency. Devising ways to become energy-efficient involves activities that benefit the environment and simultaneously cut costs – whether you replace light bulbs or have fuel-efficient trucks.
Ayesha Katgara – Head of Corporate Strategy, at Jeena & Company says, “Jeena fathoms the solemnity of energy conservation and has several impactful initiatives in the pipeline which we will be taking up in the days to come, one at a time. At the operations level, we do our bit towards energy conservation by installing motion sensors at the lobbies to prevent the misuse of power, reducing paper usage by switching to digital alternatives, installing low-flow aerators in the water taps to reduce water wastage, etc. From the industry perspective, we have completely stopped printing Bill of Lading(s) and instead provide an electronic Bill of Lading (BL) to our customers on our customer portal.”
In a bid to conserve energy, companies such as UPS, Amazon, FedEx, DHL, etc. are already switching to alternative fuels and adopting hybrid or even fully electric vehicles to carry out their operations.
“Undertaking energy conservation initiatives is not something that should only be enforced by the Government. We should be embracing practices at the micro-level to make a difference in the larger canvas,” says Ayesha
Inculcating programs using alternative sources that reduce energy consumption, is both good for the environment as well as good for businesses. Understanding the importance of energy conservation, businesses are also considering environmentally-friendly policies as a competitive edge. This is putting logistics companies in a strong position with their suppliers as well as customers, and of course, being beneficial for the environment.
