Greener Shipping: Smarter Ways to Send Your Stuff

Here’s something uncomfortable; shipping and transportation contributes to about 20% of worldwide total energy consumption. When you think about that, and where it comes from, it all boils down to our collective need for stuff. Almost everything we buy has been shipped from somewhere or to somewhere. From store’s stocking shelves to businesses sending packages, whenever we send something or buy something we contribute to the shipping industry. We talk in broad strokes about climate change and going green, but in this industry anyway, we all have a hand to play. So maybe we should know a little more about the damage and what we can do about it.

By Land, Air or Sea

Almost all methods of transport have severely negligible effects on our environment. Ships and trucks are some of the world’s worst offenders in terms of CO2 emissions, releasing millions of tonnes of CO2 into the air every year. Sea shipping alone makes up about 5% of Global Carbon dioxide emissions and that amount is only expected to go up. Airplanes and Railways are also contributors but not nearly as severely as ships and road vehicles. Let’s also consider the packaging that we ship everything in. Packaging can be paper, plastic, Styrofoam, cardboard or any number of other materials that wind up as waste in our landfills. It’s hard to feel like you can make much of a difference against a fleet of 90,000 ships, but by doing our best to control our shipping choices, we can support initiatives that are making an impact.

Carbon Offsets

Carbon reduction is better than carbon offsets. That’s just true. But we can’t discount the value of what carbon offsets are doing to at least make an improvement in a growing problem. The basic idea is that carbon offsets represent a reduction in of greenhouse gasses in one area to offset the carbon emissions in another. People pay money for carbon offsets and the money then goes toward funding projects that can reduce CO2. Programs like renewable energy, methane collection and destruction of industry pollutants just to name a few. The largest market for carbon offsets is compliance. Governments and huge industries purchase carbon offsets because they have to. They can’t keep their emissions down so they have to buy offsets to remain in compliance with regulatory standards. So, their efforts are, shall we say, underwhelming.

But there is a smaller market, the voluntary one, it isn’t a different operation, but it is a different motivation. In this group, smaller businesses and even individuals can purchase offsets to help reduce their carbon footprints. No one in this category is compelled to buy these offsets for any reason other than their own efforts to contribute to an ongoing effort to reduce our environmental impact. Sure, it’s also a sales tool and it’s good for PR. But it’s also a real way to bring some social conscience regarding carbon to the public. Companies that utilize carbon offsets give individuals a real chance to make choices that matter in shipping and hundreds of other industries as well. We need to keep working toward over-all reductions and more efficient means of fueling our transport, but for now this is certainly better than nothing.

Environmental Initiatives

Aside from carbon offsets, individual companies around the world are finding ways to reduce their environmental impact in some interesting and innovative ways. From using recycled products to re-purposing packaging materials, people are trying to change their detrimental practices and policies every day. There are bizarre but clever ideas like Dell Computers using a mushroom based material for packaging. And there are practical logistical maneuvers, like trucking companies that find freight loads to help fill unused truck space, reducing wasted fuel and emissions. Whether it’s totally out-of-the-box thinking or simply working smarter, many companies are trying new tactics to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Some more of them include:

Biofuels for air shipping
Hybrid delivery trucks
Improved truck propulsion systems for trucks
Supply chain optimization
Reducing stops and empty loads
Improved aerodynamics and proper tire inflation for trucks to maximize fuel efficiency
Matching shipments with unused transporting space
Route refinement for fuel conservation

Various transport companies everywhere are all finding ways to re-focus on saving the environment. Not every business employs all of these initiatives of course. But what is important is the wide range of efforts happening all around us. We have more choices in shipping than we imagine and by supporting these kinds of green-conscious endeavors we can, in our own small way, attempt to help scale back the damage being done by the transportation industry at large.

Until we develop the technology for transporter beams, the shipping industry is going to be a part of our daily lives. Well, as long as our culture wants to keep getting and sending our stuff anyway. But we don’t need to be blind about it. We can buy local when ever we possibly can, but when we can’t, we can support organizations, companies and initiatives that are actually making strides to create real change. The battle for the planet’s soul is much bigger than I think any of use is really ready to comprehend. But every little bit we can do to reduce some the world’s largest carbon footprints, is at least a step in the right direction.