How to clean up your supply chain from source to shelf.

By Andrew Cave

Many businesses have taken action to reduce energy use, improve efficiency and cut direct carbon emissions.

They have devised and implemented energy and carbon management strategies, reaping benefits through cost savings and more engaged workforces.

Businesses can reach the next stage by focusing on the indirect carbon emissions from their supply chains and meeting consumers' increased demands for low-carbon products and services.

By studying their supply chains, businesses can map out carbon emitted at every stage of a product's life cycle from source to shelf, consumption and disposal.

Pilot projects with crisps group Walkers and newspapers company Trinity Mirror identified potential annual savings totalling £2.7m and 28,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide - equivalent to the emissions of 5,000 households.

Similar pilot programmes are now under way at confectionery group Cadbury Schweppes, retailer Marks & Spencer and pharmacy chain Boots amongst others.

Read More...

The localvore's dilemma

By Drake Bennett | July 22, 2007

AT VARIOUS POINTS in the coming months, a few hundred of Vermont's most ethical eaters will take the "Localvore Challenge." The actual dates of the challenge vary from town to town, but the idea is that, for a single meal, or a day, or an entire week, participants will eat only food that was grown or raised within 100 miles of where they live.

Vermont's localvores (also known as "locavores" or "locatarians") and their counterparts around the country are part of a burgeoning movement. In recent years, as large companies with globe-straddling supply networks have come to dominate organic agriculture, "local" has emerged as the new watchword of conscientious consumption. Over the past year and a half, the interest in local food has been fueled by best-selling memoirs and manifestos about local eating and dietary self-sufficiency, such as Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," Bill McKibben's "Deep Economy," and Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

Read More...

Buying imported food may actually be more energy-efficient

ALASTAIR JAMIESON CONSUMER AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (ajamieson@scotsman.com)

FOR the conscientious, food shopping now poses yet another ethical dilemma: is it really better to buy locally rather than shipping meat, fruit and vegetables around the globe?

A conference of experts yesterday heard that importing food from the other side of the world can actually be more energy-efficient than buying British produce and helps developing countries tackle poverty.

The debate threatens to split the organic movement and could leave ordinary shoppers confused as to what to do for the best. It also comes as the Scottish Conservatives launch a "buy local, eat local" campaign to support farmers and reduce food miles - the distance travelled from suppliers to supermarkets.

Read More...