We were featured in the February issue of Supply Chain Digital.  Read it here.

On October 8, 2009 UPS announced that they are launching a program that allows customers an option to purchase a carbon offset any time they ship a package. UPS customers pay a flat fee of $0.05 cents for ground shipments and $0.20 cents for air shipments. Certified offsets are purchased which support of variety of different programs including waste water treatment, landfill gas destruction and wetland restoration.

As a company dedicated to creating carbon neutral shipments, Green Shipping (www.greenshipping.com) is glad to see that other organizations are beginning to consider their shipment emissions and offer ways to offset them. “What is good for the environment is also good business.” Reducing the CO2 emitted by packages will help in the fight against climate change. Green Shipping offers a comprehensive carbon neutral shipping solution and supports shipments from UPS, FedEx, USPS as well as freight carriers. Green Shipping uses the weight, mode of transportation, and routing information for each and every shipment in order to provide the most accurate carbon footprint calculation available.
With Green Shipping, participating businesses can use their environmental commitment as a competitive advantage. Certified Green Shippers can display the Green Shipping logo on their website and in communication to their customers. With the Green Shipping iTrack™ package tracking tool, businesses can quickly and easily enable package tracking on their website and provide customers with a one stop solution for information on their orders. Green Shipping offsets the environmental impacts of customer shipments with purchases from Bonneville Environment Foundation who was award the EPA 2009 Green Energy Supplier of the Year award and is leading the way to a cleaner environment.
For more info on Green Shipping’s carbon neutral shipping solution, check out our short video
For more info on UPS carbon neutral shipping click here

PORTLAND, Ore. – September 15, 2009 The Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), an entrepreneurial supplier of green power solutions, announced today that it has won two Green Power Leadership Awards- an awards program jointly sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS). BEF has been recognized as the Best Green Power Supplier of the Year and its Solar 4R Schools program won Best Green Power Education Outreach Program in the Market Development Category . Award winners were announced during the Renewable Energy Markets Conference being held in Atlanta, GA this week.

Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1998. BEF is a national, nonprofit organization and has played a major role in the development of the carbon offset market. In 2000, BEF helped to create the voluntary market for carbon offsets by closing the first retail REC trade deal with the Environmental Protection Agency. They also launched the first online carbon calculator in 2001.

The partnership between Greenshipping.com and BEF Carbon Offsets, empowers organizations and individuals to dedicate funds to the development of renewable energy sources like solar power and wind farms, while at the same time making their package shipments carbon neutral. We are glad to have BEF as our partner and know that with their help, Greenshipping.com and our customers will reduce climate change.

From Dr. Vino's Website

In May, National Geographic published a small expose on “The Toll of Wine”. The article is based off of research by Pablo Paster (Climate Check) and Tyler Colman (Dr. Vino). Transport tallies for the shipment of a 750 mill. bottle of wine are estimated for shipping and trucking from Napa, U.S., Sydney, Australia, Bordeaux, France and Santiago Chili to L.A., Chicago and New York city.

The Results:

Trucking from Napa to NYC has the largest impact at 4.4lbs/ bottle shipped where as shipping from Bordeaux, France to NYC has the smallest impact at 0.3lbs/ bottle shipped (Yes, this is even smaller than trucking from Napa to LA which equals around 0.6lbs/bottle shipped).

So, it is clear that trucking is a lot less efficient than shipping but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should import all of your wine. Shopping for local wine (as well as food) is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. But, if you must get a Pot de Bordeaux, a bottle of Calistoga, a flagon of Yellow Tail or a carafe of Casas Del Bosque delivered to your door, Greenshipping is a great way to offset those emissions!

Here are links to the study and comments about the article:

Dr. Vino: “The Tolll of WIne”

Treehugger: To Ship or Truck?

The American Energy and Security Act passed through the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, June 26, 2009. The bill, part of President Obama’s initiative to curb climate change, requires a 17-percent emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2020. The plan would reduce United States’ emissions by about 80 percent by 2050.

To reach this significant goal, the government would call for a renewable electricity standard that would require each electricity provider who supplies over 4 million MWh to produce 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. There would also be moves to improve the electricity grid, boost the use of electric cars and commit to energy efficiency.

The cap and trade system is the foundation of the Bill and is also the most controversial. Environmental groups are concerned that a large amount of credits (85 %) will be handed out for free, at no cost to the utility companies. They say that, the free allotment will continue the delay for the U.S. to agree to something that will actually have an impact on stopping the climate crisis.

The American Energy and Security Act proposes a lot of great strides in the U.S.’s efforts reduce global climate change. When passed, it will be interesting how the implementation process goes.

Click here to view a great Reuters Article about the American Energy and Security Act

Click here to follow the American Energy and Security Act

In the green shipping business, we spend a lot of time reading the news and monitoring trends in the industry.  We are very encouraged by the green initiatives that all the US based carriers have been pursuing.  With biofuels for air travel, hybrid trucks for delivery, new propulsion systems for trucks, and supply chain optimization, the industry is poised to make a big impact on the footprint of world-wide shipping.  It is no small task and to realize that it is a priority is encouraging to say the least.  Reducing emissions is always better than offsetting them.  While it takes time, we hope that some day, through innovation and continued investment in the transportation infrastructure, that we become obsolete in the shipping process.  We encourage our readers and members to contact their shippers and let them know that you see what they are doing and that you support it 100%.  We’ll post articles as they come out that highlight the state of the industry and the technology advancements that are being made.  

Have a great weekend!

Carbon neutral shipping is measuring the footprint of shipments and then purchasing carbon offsets to negate their footprint.  The heavier the package, the longer the distance travelled, and the most fuel hungry the transportation method, the more CO2 that needs to be offset for carbon neutrality. 

In effect, by offsetting a shipment, you are paying to take an action that reduces carbon output into the atmosphere in an amount equal to the footprint of your shipment.  Examples of those actions are the creation of wind power projects, solar arrays, or the capture of gasses from landfills.  For power projects, your money putting killowatts of power onto the power grid, which reduces the demand for sources like coal power.  Fortunately there are accurate ways of measuring the impact from these projects and legitimate offsetters use third party certifications to verify and quantify the reductions they have achieved.  

In some circles, the idea of offsetting emissions is considered “buying off your conscience” while you continue to maintain a large carbon footprint.  There definitely is some truth to that idea and is a reason why we’ve tried to make Green Shipping an educational tool for shippers.  With the mapping technology we use to display shipments, you can see how your shipments get from point A to point B and how much CO2 they’ve emitted. 

If you follow your shipments, you can quickly learn how your up-front decisions affect the footprint of your actions.  For instance, let’s say you’re buying a new computer on Amazon.com.  Of course “super saver” shipping is free, but for an extra $12 you can get it in just two days.  Most people don’t realize that air shipments emit over 8 times the amount of CO2 that ground shipments do, and make the choice based on the convenience/cost ratio.  We are hoping that as people learn to estimate the impact of their future actions by understanding the impact of their past actions, that we can make a big difference independent of whether we purchase carbon offsets for full carbon neutrality.

We’re pleased to formalize our relationship with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.  The joint press release went over the wire yesterday.  

We initially selected BEF for two reasons.  First, they’re a non-profit and any proceeds from their carbon projects go to good causes like watershed restoration, renewable energy education for kids, and other great programs.  Second, their projects are focused primarily on North America.  While CO2 is a global problem without regional boundaries, pollution is a regional problem.  North American projects help increase our air quality and help to build our green economy by creating jobs and focusing development locally.  

As we have gotten to know BEF better, we have been increasingly impressed with how they run their business.  They are a leader in developing rigorous site selection criteria used to select the site of new wind projects.  These criteria consider the potential impacts to the ecosystems and surrounding the projects.