Nachhaltigkeit

Small and medium enterprises (SME) in Germany are in a good mood. More than 90 % of the SMEs are in an appropriate economic situation reports the Bundesverband mittelständische Wirtschaft (BVMW). About 38 % of these companies expect a higher turnover in 2014 [1]. But there is one real problem the companies are faced with: the lack of skilled labour.

Unemployment is one of biggest prob-lems menacing the “industrial world”. On the other hand few other things justify human activity more reliably than his working which, at the same time, contri-butes remarkably to his self-esteem as a key source for his happiness. Common alter-natives to work like so called crea-tive activities, charity, but also purely passive pleasures don’t fill the gap in the long run. Also, classical human work is expected to create dangerous results in the material (eco-lo-gical) sense as well as, increa-singly, in the psychological domain. While classical economic wisdom attributes the amount and the quality of work to technical, political, and social efforts the role of the client as an active partner in furthering the importance of work is emphasized.

The majority of international transport is processed via maritime transport chains, which contribute significantly to global emissions of CO2. As a result, companies attempt to reduce the pollution by optimizing processes and by introducing environmental friendly technologies. However, initiatives are rather pursued on an individual company level than in an inter-actor cooperation. This strategy is ineffective because the key for sustainable operations in a transport chain is the alignment of linking intersections. This paper examines opportunities for the successful implementation of Eco-Innovations along the maritime transport chain as well as its actual adaption. Boundary-spanning cooperation with “landside” actors has been identified as the largest lever for a successful implementation of Eco-Innovations.

Customers, society and politics challenge companies to ensure the sustainability of their value creation. Many stakeholder groups have an eye on the logistics. These groups constantly raise new requirements and regulations affecting companies’ businesses.  This is the reason why it is not sufficient anymore to react on changing requirements. Companies can gain competitive advantages if they anticipate trends in sustainability and react immediately. In this context, this article presents an approach for trend monitoring and a change agent suppor-ting to react effectively and efficiently on trends in sustainability.

When selecting logistics strategies for their production networks, companies increasingly need to consider not only economic but as well environmental aspects. Those environmental aspects are, however, not easy to evaluate. This holds especially for SME with their limited resources. To assist companies in selecting a logistics strategy that meets their needs, a KPI framework to evaluate the economic and environmental sustainability of logistics strategies was developed within the Green-Net research project. Using the system dynamics approach, a simulation model was developed, which helps to anticipate and evaluate the impact of a certain logistics strategy on the company’s network.

Increasing customer demand and legislative regulations on sustainability lead to growing pressure on companies to provide transparency on the negative social and ecological effects of their business activities and those of their suppliers and service providers. A broad strategic integration of sustainability, incorporating economic, social and ecological aspects, enables companies to gain a competitive advantage. Several standards provide support for the measurement and reporting of ecological and social indicators, though the quantification of social sustainability still remains a challenge. For improving sustainability effectively, the scope of measurement and target setting has to include supply chain partners like suppliers or service providers. Top performing companies include sustainability criteria in their procurement processes for logistics services to reduce their transport-related emissions effectively.

Rising energy costs, the changing political context as well as growing customer requirements are increasing the pressure on manufacturing companies to run sustainable factories. A method to realize an energy efficient factory is the Energy Value Stream Mapping. This paper shows an approach which adds a simulative and participative dimension to the method by using the IFU planning table.

Heading for an ecological production, precise specifications regarding a maximal amount of harmful substances emitted is needed. By defining a quantifiable goal for carbon dioxide on product component level, a precise evaluation of the current product-portfolio’s sustainability becomes feasible. Therefore incorrect practices on shop floor level can be observed and eliminated by appropriate and cost-efficient concepts. A structured calculation model for quantifying the sustainable carbon dioxide emission over the entire product life cycle is being developed: the Target Allowance. This enables production systems to implement ecological minimum requirements oriented on the absolute, global maximum loading.

Following increasing public demand, sustainability is currently on the agenda of every company. In particular for logistics, environmental considerations play an important role today. This manuscript will put forward the concepts of “green” and “greener” logistics and highlight the differences between the two. “Greener logistics” encompasses all approaches dedicated to increasing the resource efficiency of logistics processes. In this article a practical guide to implementing greener logistics will be outlined. In order to ensure customer focus, a target costing approach is suggested. Practical relevance is demonstrated with a case study.

The importance of sustainable planning and managing of networks by logistics concepts is rising. However, estimating these logistics concepts under sustainability aspects is a problem which many logistics managers have to face. The impact of logistics concepts to the target figures in a sustainable performance measurement system highly depends on the correlation between the variables. In this paper the correlation between the target figures within the functional areas of procurement, production, distribution and service are depicted. Based on these findings a cross-functional causal loop diagram is derived.