EditEd by

AlAn McKinnon, ShAron cullinAnE,

MichAEl brownE, Anthony whitEing
GREEN
LOGISTICS
Improving the environmental
sustainability of logistics
Publishers note
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accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility
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First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2010 by Kogan Page Limited
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www.koganpage.com India
Alan McKinnon, Sharon Cullinane, Michael Browne and Anthony Whiteing, 2010
The right of the authors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted
by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN 978 0 7494 5678 8
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Green logistics : improving the environmental sustainability of logistics / Alan
McKinnon ... [et al.].
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7494-5678-8
1. Business logistics--Environmental aspects. I. McKinnon, Alan C., 1953-
HD38.5.G696 2010
658.7--dc22
2009037392
Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd
Contents
Contributor biographies vii
Part 1 ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF
LOGISTICS 1
1 Environmental sustainability: a new priority for logistics
managers 3
Alan McKinnon
1
Introduction 3; A brief history of green logistics research 5;
Green logistics: rhetoric and reality 17; A model for green
logistics research 19; Outline of the book 22; notes 25;
References 25
2 Assessing the environmental impacts of freight transport 31
Sharon Cullinane and Julia Edwards
Introduction 31; Environmental impacts 32; Environmental
standards 39; measuring the environmental impact of freight
transport 42; Notes 45; References 45
3 Carbon auditing of companies, supply chains and products 49
Maja Piecyk
Introduction 49; Guidelines for carbon footprinting 50; The
carbon footprinting process 51; Success factors in carbon
footprinting 59; Case study: carbon auditing of road freight
transport operations in the UK 60; Conclusions 65;
References 66
iv Contents
4 Evaluating and internalizing the environmental costs of logistics 68
Maja Piecyk, Alan McKinnon and Julian Allen
Introduction 68; Arguments for and against the internalization
of environmental costs 69; Monetary valuation of
environmental costs 72; Internalization of the external costs
imposed by road freight vehicles in the UK 79; Conclusions
93; Notes 95; References 95
Part 2 STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE 99
5 Restructuring of logistics systems and supply chains 101
Irina Harris, Vasco Sanchez Rodrigues, Mohamed Naim and Christine
Mumford
Introduction 101; Current state of knowledge of traditional
supply chains 102; Green supply chains 111; Gaps in our
understanding and priorities for research 116; Consequences
and conclusions 119; References 120
6 Transferring freight to greener transport modes 124
Allan Woodburn and Anthony Whiteing
Background 124; Characteristics of the main freight transport
modes 126; Environmental impacts of the main freight
transport modes 129; Case study: container train load factors
130; The policy framework 131; Examples of measures aimed
at achieving modal shift for environmental benefit 133; Rail
and water industries 135; Conclusions 138; References 139
7 Development of greener vehicles, aircraft and ships 140
Alan McKinnon, Julian Allen and Allan Woodburn
Introduction 140; Road freight 141; Rail freight operations 150;
Air freight 153; Shipping 157; Conclusions 162; Notes 162;
References 163
8 Reducing the environmental impact of warehousing 167
Clive Marchant
Introduction 167; Scale of the environmental impact 168;
Increasing resource intensity 171; Framework for assessing
the environmental impact of warehouses 173; Ways of
reducing the environmental impact 173; Conclusion 189;
References 190
Contents v
Part 3 OPERATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 193
9 Opportunities for improving vehicle utilization 195
Alan McKinnon and Julia Edwards
Introduction 195; Measuring vehicle utilization 196; Factors
affecting the utilization of truck capacity 199; Conclusion 210;
Note 210; References 210
10 Optimizing the routing of vehicles 215
Richard Eglese and Dan Black
Introduction 215; Vehicle routing problems 216; Types of
problem 217; Environmental impact 221; Conclusions 224;
References 225
11 Increasing fuel efficiency in the road freight sector 229
Alan McKinnon
Introduction 229; Fuel efficiency of new trucks 230; Vehicle
design: aerodynamic profiling 231; Reducing the vehicle tare
weight 232; Vehicle purchase decision 233; Vehicle
maintenance 234; Increasing the fuel efficiency of trucking
operations 235; Benchmarking the fuel efficiency of trucks 237;
More fuel-efficient driving 238; Fleet management 239;
Conclusions 240; References 240
12 Reverse logistics for the management of waste 242
Tom Cherrett, Sarah Maynard, Fraser McLeod and Adrian Hickford
Introduction 242; Waste management in the context of reverse
logistics 243; The impact of waste treatment legislation 246;
Reuse, refurbishment markets and take-back schemes 250;
Managing waste as part of a sustainable reverse process 253;
Conclusions 256; References 259
Part 4 KEY ISSUES 263
13 The food miles debate 265
Tara Garnett
Introduction 265; Transport and GHGs: is further worse? 266;
Transport, the second order impacts and the implications for
GHGs 272; Local versus global and the self-sufficiency
question 274; Notes 277; References 277
vi Contents
14 Sustainability strategies for city logistics 282
Julian Allen and Michael Browne
Introduction 282; Urban freight research and policy making
283; Efficiency problems in urban freight transport 285; Urban
freight transport initiatives 288; urban consolidation centres
290; Joint working between the public and private sectors 294;
Environmental zones 296; Conclusions 301; References 302
15 Benefits and costs of switching to alternative fuels 306
Sharon Cullinane and Julia Edwards
Introduction 306; The main types of alternative fuels 307;
Current use of AFs in the freight industry 316; The future 318;
Notes 318; References 319
16 E-business, e-logistics and the environment 322
Julia Edwards, Yingli Wang, Andrew Potter and Sharon Cullinane
Introduction 322; Business-to-business (B2B) 323; Business-to-
consumer (B2C) 327; Restructuring of the supply chain 330;
the environmental impact of e-commerce 330; Case study:
Online Books supply chain 333; The future 335; References 335
Part 5 PUBLIC POLICY PERSPECTIVE 339
17 The role of government in promoting green logistics 341
Alan McKinnon
Introduction 341; Objectives of public policy on sustainable
logistics 344; Policy measures 344; Reducing freight transport
intensity 347; Shifting freight to greener transport modes 349;
Improving vehicle utilization 351; Increasing energy efficiency
353; cutting emissions relative to energy use 355; Government-
sponsored advisory and accreditation programmes 356;
Conclusion 357; Note 358; References 358
Index 361
Contributor biographies
Julian Allen is a Senior Research Fellow in the Transport Department at
the University of Westminster, where he is involved in research and
teaching activities relating to freight transport and logistics. His current
research interests are urban freight transport, the impact of manufac-
turing and retailing techniques on logistics and transportation systems
and the history of freight transport.
Daniel Black is a Research Associate at the Department of Management
Science in Lancaster University Management School. His research
interests include the environmental impact of vehicle routing and sched-
uling decisions, stochastic inventory control and optimization problems
with particular reference to developing computer-based models.
Michael Browne directs freight transport and logistics research at the
University of Westminster. Recent projects include: research on the
energy use implications of global sourcing, potential benefits from
improved city logistics strategies and forecasting future trends in logistics.
He has worked on studies for Transport for London, the European
Commission, the UK Department for Transport, the Research Councils
and commercial organizations. He represents the University on many
external committees and boards and chairs the Central London Freight
Quality Partnership.
Tom Cherrett B.Sc., Ph.D, MCILT is a Senior Lecturer in the Transportation
Research Group, University of Southampton. His main research areas
include developing sustainable strategies for the collection and disposal
viii Contributors
of waste and the distribution of goods in urban areas, including distri-
bution strategies for sustainable home delivery. He has considerable
experience in the areas of incident detection and journey time estimation
using urban traffic control infrastructure. He has management and
logistics experience from working in the chilled distribution sector.
Sharon Cullinane gained her PhD in logistics 20 years ago from Plymouth
University. Since then she has continued to lecture, research and publish
in the field of transport policy and the environment around the world.
Her most recent post was as Senior Lecturer at Heriot-Watt University in
Edinburgh. Prior to that she was employed at the University of Hong
Kong, Oxford University, the Egyptian National Institute of Transport,
the Ecole Superieur de Rennes and Plymouth University. She is now an
independent consultant. She is widely published internationally.
Julia Edwards is a Research Associate at the Logistics Research Centre in
the School of Management and Languages at Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh. She joined Heriot-Watt in 2006, as part of the multi-university
Green Logistics project. Prior to that she was a Senior Lecturer in
Environmental Management at the University of Wales, Newport. Dr.
Edwards has been researching and teaching in the areas of transport and
environmental issues for the last 16 years. Currently, her research interests
include carbon auditing of supply chains, e-commerce and the envi-
ronment, and consumer travel and shopping behaviour.
Richard Eglese is a Professor of Operational Research at the Department
of Management Science in Lancaster University Management School. His
research interests concern mathematical and computational modelling
for logistics and focus on optimization techniques, particularly heuristic
methods, applied to problems of vehicle routing and scheduling. He has
worked on a variety of applications including food distribution to super-
markets and winter gritting for road surfaces. In 20102011 he is President
of the Operational Research Society.
Tara Garnett set up and runs the Food Climate Research Network based
at the University of Surrey (www.fcrn.org.uk). Her work focuses on the
contribution that the food system makes to greenhouse gas emissions and
the scope for emissions reduction, looking at the technological, behav-
ioural and policy options. She is also interested in the relationship between
emissions reduction objectives and other social and ethical concerns,
including human health, animal welfare, international development and
biodiversity.
Contributors ix
Irina Harris is a research student at Cardiff University. Her research
project on Multi-Objective Optimization for Green Logistics is jointly
supervised by Cardiff School of Computer Science and Cardiff Business
School. The objective is to investigate the feasibility of building a multi-
objective optimization decision support tool for modelling the physical
infrastructure of a logistics network where traditional and environmental
objectives are considered simultaneously. The approach focuses on
producing a set of viable alternatives for a decision-maker in contrast to
calculating objectives as a constraint or prioritizing them.
Clive Marchant is a senior teaching fellow at Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh, where he teaches freight transport systems as well as distri-
bution centre design and management. He is an active member of the
Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport as well as member of the
Warehouse Education Research Council in the USA. Prior to obtaining a
Masters at Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt Universities he had a 25 year
career in the third party logistics sector encompassing roles in operational
management and the design of distribution networks and warehousing.
Sarah Maynard BSc, MSc, is a researcher at the Transportation Research
Group (TRG), University of Southampton, UK. Since joining TRG in 2004
she has specialized in waste transport research and has been involved in
a number of projects funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council. Recent research has investigated the transport impacts
associated with household waste recycling centres and the benefits of
using reverse logistics processes to collect returns and waste generated
by different retail supply chains in urban centres.
Alan McKinnon is Professor of Logistics and Director of the Logistics
Research Centre at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. A graduate of the
universities of Aberdeen, British Columbia and London, he has been
researching and teaching in freight transport/logistics for 30 years and
has published extensively in journals and books. Alan has conducted
studies for numerous public and private sector organizations, and has
been an adviser to several UK government departments and parlia-
mentary committees and various international agencies. He is also a
member of the World Economic Forums Global Agenda Council on the
Future of Transportation.
Fraser McLeod (B.Sc. in mathematics, M.Phil. in passive sonar) is a
Research Fellow with the Transportation Research Group, University of
Southampton, with over 20 years experience of working on transport-
related projects. In recent years his work has focused on Intelligent
x Contributors
Transport Systems (ITS), freight distribution and on the logistics of
collecting household and trade waste. The common theme of the research
is to suggest methods for improving transport efficiency and evaluating
them through the use of simulation modelling, routeing and scheduling
methods and mathematical analyses.
Christine Mumford obtained her PhD from Imperial College, London in
1995, and is a Senior Member of the IEEE. She is currently a Senior Lecturer
at Cardiff University in the School of Computer Science. Her research
interests include evolutionary computing and other metaheuristics,
multi-objective optimization, and applications focused on combinatorial
optimization, particularly vehicle routing, logistic network design, sched-
uling, timetabling and cutting and packing.
Mohamed Naim is a Professor in Logistics and Operations Management
at Cardiff Business School. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of
the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Chartered Institute
of Logistics and Transport. He is a Director of the Logistics Systems
Dynamics Group and the EPSRC funded Cardiff University Innovative
Manufacturing Research Centre. Mohamed is a former Editor-in-Chief of
the International Journal of Logistics and is an Advisory Committee
Member for the International Symposium on Logistics.
Maja Piecyk is a Research Associate in the Logistics Research Centre at
Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. She has MSc degrees in economics
and logistics. Her research interests focus on the environmental
performance of supply chains and sustainability of freight transport
operations. Much of her current work centres on the CO
2
auditing of busi-
nesses and the forecasting of long-term trends in the energy demands
and environmental impacts of logistics.
Andrew Potter is a senior lecturer in transport and logistics at Cardiff
University. His research has particularly focused on how freight transport
can become more integrated within supply chains. While much of the
focus has been on traditional supply chain performance measures, more
recently consideration has also been given to environmental performance.
He has published in a wide range of logistics and operations management
journals. Andrew is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics
and Transport (UK).
Vasco Sanchez-Rodrigues has a first degree in Chemical Engineering
from the Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela and an MBA from the
University of Cardiff. Since 2005 he has been a researcher in the Cardiff
Contributors xi
Business School, initially on the Fabric-to-Furniture project and over the
past three years on the multi-university Green Logistics project. His main
research interests are the trade-offs between supply chain management
and green logistics under conditions of uncertainty. He is now in the
process of completing a PhD on this topic.
Yingli Wang is a lecturer in logistics and operations management at
Cardiff Business School. Before working at Cardiff University, she had a
variety of managerial roles in Nestl China, before completing an MBA in
the UK. Her current research focuses on the application of technology in
B2B logistics and transport management. In particular, her research has
focused on electronic logistics marketplaces. This research formed the
basis for her PhD thesis, which won the CILT(UK) James Cooper Memorial
Cup in 2009.
Anthony Whiteing is a Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Transport
Studies at the University of Leeds. His main areas of expertise are in
freight transport economics, distribution, logistics and supply chain
management. An academic with some 30 years experience, he has been
involved in a wide range of UK and European research projects primarily
in the field of freight transport, and is the Principal Investigator on the
Green Logistics research project.
Allan Woodburn is a Senior Lecturer in Freight and Logistics in the
Transport Studies Department at the University of Westminster, London.
He is involved in a wide range of teaching, research and consultancy
activities in the field of freight transport, both within the UK and interna-
tionally. Allan completed his Doctorate examining the role for rail freight
within the supply chain in 2000. Since then, his main research focus has
been on rail freight policy, planning and operations, focusing specifically
on efficiency and sustainability issues.