Sustainability will, with time, become a key performance indicator for the supply chain, along with such traditional KPIs as on-time delivery, order accuracy and transit time, says Andrea Schoen, director of environmental affairs at DB Schenker Logistics.

Adding sustainability as a supply chain KPI "will mean tangibly lower emissions and greenhouse gases, so I believe the supply chain of the future will integrate this KPI as a quality standard," Schoen says.

At DB Schenker Logistics sustainability already is a KPI, and the company has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, Schoen says. Additionally, DB Schenker Logistics has created eco-solutions for each transport mode. "These eco-solutions help customers see how they might rearrange their supply chain in sustainable ways, with numbers that enable them to compare emissions before and after implementing a change," she says.

Shifting modes is one change that can have a big impact on emissions, she says. For example, the sustainability ratio of ocean to air transport is about 1:50 or higher, in terms of emissions, while rail to road has has a comparison ratio of around 1:4, she says.

DB Schenker Logistics also is working on ways to better measure a company's carbon footprint, noting that "measuring is one of the key topics among our customers, who are more and more involved in supply chain sustainability." In addition to participating in several broad initiatives on carbon measuring, DB Schenker Logistics has created an emissions calculation tool, Schoen says. Called Eco Transit World (www.ecotransit.org), the tool enables companies to calculate all supply chain emissions in a detailed way, Schoen says.

To view the video in its entirety, click here