According to many Internet sources, the concept of „green logistics“ is not yet „sufficiently defined“. At the same time, manufacturing companies are planning to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. How does that fit together?
Despite growing media attention, heated discourse on talk shows and increasing social pressure, the idea, urgency and relevance of environmentally oriented logistics has not yet reached every workplace. Despite the fact that individuals are increasingly deciding to make their lives more environmentally conscious and climate-friendly, decision-makers in large organizations in particular continue to act sleepily and reactively. Yet it is precisely these manufacturing companies that make the greatest contribution to our current and future climate. It is strange to see private motivation and the far-reaching willingness to make one’s own sacrifices compared with the sluggish willingness of large organizations to change. Especially since a company is just a collection of people who have decided to produce a product or offer a service. Do these people suppress their convictions as soon as they enter the office? Are the wrong, malicious people sitting in positions of power in those organizations? Do these people simply not know how to act and work „green“? The answer to the first two questions is simple: No. There are plenty of sensible people in large corporations who act and work with good will, prudence and a clear conscience. Even if some would like to claim that this is not the case. People who answer „yes“ to these two questions are ill-informed, biased and make the world a little too easy for themselves. By the way, the answer to the third question is the same again: No. We all know exactly how to be „greener“. If you’re honest with yourself, it’s not very difficult either. Going green is not rocket science. So the question is why global companies, with their worldwide supply chains, are not responding to the latest findings. Why are they not investing? Why are they reactive about their footprint despite immense attention and pressure from the public. Some will now make it too easy again and say that such companies are simply deeply immoral and are „jusrt interested in their profit, but not in nature and future generations“. This is also a fallacious argument, since environmental orientation and profit are not mutually exclusive, but will fuel each other in the future. It is obvious that environmental orientation and profit will correlate in the future, otherwise not only high penalties will be due from 2050, but also old technologies, transport routes and production methods will become increasingly inefficient due to a lacking economy of scale. This is in contrast to the innovative working paths, which are increasingly being researched and made applicable for every company. In the future, a certain „long-term business orientation“ will no longer be special and valued, but will be the accepted industry standard. Anything else would not only be immoral, but also not very profitable. So what is it that makes this move toward innovation and environmental focus so sluggish? What is holding people back? And who are these „people“, anyway? There are many such questions that give me a headache, too. In one way, we are in an awakening phase that we could control and steer. On the other hand, in many places there is a lack of motivation to fundamentally rethinking and redesigning of processes.
Ultimately, I’ll leave it at my criticism and these open questions in this first article. There is no simple answer to one of those questions. These problems are just too complex in order to shame a few decision-makers and their immorality . Nevertheless, I have made it my mission to inform myself about developments in logistics, to enhance a culture of questioning and to think about better ways of doing business in supply chain management. And therefore I will start with myself.