Supply chains (yawn) are yet another bit of the compliance picture we now have to look at.
As boring as it is, it’s also very, very important to ensure: transparency, quality, ethical sourcing, and CO2-friendly transport.
So here’s a bit of software made by ILOG that looks after just that. Until now it’s been a bit of a nightmare working out how resources are sourced. And having transparency to compare bits and bobs has been quite tough too.
Greenbang wonders if this really can change that. Greenbang doesn’t know because he’s not tried it. Your comments, please…
It’s also nice to see IT finally looking to solve some problems other than cutting data centre energy use. Very bored of that old chestnut now.
“While the value of inventory optimisation is unchallenged, rising fuel costs have placed even more attention on every aspect of cost within the supply chain,” said David Simchi-Levi, professor at MIT, co-author of “Designing and Managing the Supply Chain” and Chief Science Officer at ILOG.
“The ability to manage your inventory and customer service levels more effectively will reduce unnecessary expediting and hence transportation costs. ILOG’s Inventory Analyst 7.0 and ILOG Product Flow Optimizer 7.0 address these challenges, integrate easily with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions and complement ILOG’s advanced planning and scheduling software. The enhanced ease of integration and ease-of-use features improve the return on investment in inventory optimisation and eliminate the barriers to broader adoption of the technology.”
World Kitchen, LLC, a long-time user of ILOG Inventory Analyst, has been using the latest version of the ILOG software. “Since upgrading to the new release of ILOG Inventory Analyst, we have seen significant improvements in ease of use and integration,” said Brock Cummings, senior supply chain analyst at World Kitchen, LLC. “Due to the new scenario wizard and data store import functions, the extract, transform and load time has been reduced by over 75 percent. Our safety stock solution includes our ERP backbone, SAP, MS Access, Sharepoint, and ILOG Inventory Analyst.”
As part of its World Environment Day activity the Environment Agency has teamed up with the award winning comedian and BBC6 presenter, Jon Richardson, to create Stand Up To Climate Change.The routine, filmed live at Cardiff’s Glee Club, is part of its campaign for you to make a pledge for the environment.As its publicity material states:
Across England and Wales we’re focussing on how we can get ready to adapt to changes in our climate, highlighting the things we can all do to ensure that we are well prepared for the effects that climate change will bring.
So, as it’s time for a new routine, all you have to do is think about your new routine and then we’ll let award winning stand-up comedian Jon Richardson get hot and bothered about living with climate change.
The video can also be reached by clicking on the picture.
You may well have noticed that Kyocera, one of our esteemed sponsors, has been hosting an ad on Greenbang asking people to vote for it as Environmental Company of the Year in the Microscope Award for Channel Excellence awards.
Well - Kyocera won.
Here’s what they have to say for themselves:
Kyocera is delighted to announce that it has won the prestigious Microscope Award for Channel Excellence (ACE) as Environmental Company of the Year. Kyocera was recognised for its unique ECOSYS low-waste printer technology alongside its environmental business network “The Green Card” and environmental credentials that stretch back to the foundation of the company in 1959.
With environmental issues high up the business agenda it was unsurprising that Kyocera faced strong competition from the other shortlisted companies: Fujitsu Siemens, Bell Microsystems and Compellent. The voters were asked to reward the organisation that does more than simply pay lip service to environmental issues and has in-depth credentials that set an example to the rest of the industry.
Kyocera’s marketing director, Tracey Rawling Church, comments: “We are absolutely delighted to have won the ACE award for Environmental Company of the Year. Kyocera has been focusing on reducing the environmental impact of business activities for many years through our core ECOSYS technology and activities such as the Green Card Environmental business network, so to receive the recognition of our peers is extremely rewarding. The IT channel has an important role to play in promoting responsible purchasing and it is testament to the growing levels of awareness of both the environmental and commercial benefits of “green” technology that Kyocera has won this award.”
Simon Quicke, Editor of Microscope, commented: “I’m pleased to congratulate Kyocera on winning the Microscope ACE award for Environmental Company of the Year. Kyocera has been promoting its environmental message for many years, and this prestigious award demonstrates that in today’s climate, that message is resonating loud and clear.”
Well they came back and told us we failed to give them a chance to speak…
So here’s what David Hall, campaign director of Together, has to say (sent to Greenbang by a press officer).
In your recent article - Together we’ll succeed, but only if we tell the truth – you underline the important message that saving CO2 is not only good for the environment, but consumer’s wallets too. The achievements of the Together campaign and its recently launched ‘pocket and planet’ saver guide are drawn upon for reference, but you leave a couple of unanswered questions.
The first being ‘Greenbang wonders about some of the figures the campaign uses to justify its claims’. The Together campaign works with many of the UK’s favourite brands including B&Q, M&S, Tesco and O2 to offer people practical climate-friendly solutions like cut-price energy saving light bulbs, offers on loft insulation and incentives to not upgrade their mobile phone handset every year.
Every time one of these offers is taken up, we use actual sales and research data (all independently verified and calculated by The Climate Group, with significant input from the EST too) to add up the simple actions into a total CO2 figure. We use this to show how small actions can make a big difference and to date a saving of 522,494 tonnes of CO2 has been made. (We are confident that this is an extremely robust figure and would be happy to put you in touch with our research team who are responsible for calculating and updating it if you would like to understand it in more detail.)
With regard to ‘more realistic comparisons’ the ‘Pocket and Planet’ saver guide was designed to illustrate a broad range of activities which can save money and the planet. These range from small easy things that almost everyone can do (e.g. washing at 30 with a saving of £10) to longer term investments which may not be possible for everyone such as insulating your loft or driving a less polluting car. As the campaign expands and grows (recent partners included Coca Cola, Warner Bros, MySpace and The National Trust who join existing partners such as Tesco, M&S, B&Q, National Express) an increasing number of solutions will enable consumers to do more to tackle climate change and reduce their household bills.
The important general point that we wish to make is that many green behaviours can save you money, which goes against the received wisdom of ‘I’d like to go green but I can’t afford to’. With regard to the public transport vs. driving point we felt that it was important to show people the full cost of driving as it is easy for people to underestimate this. Bear in mind we only assumed someone might do this once a year so we can hardly be accused of overegging this particular example!
With so much noise around going ‘green’ nowadays, Together seeks to provide consumers with a trusted reference for what they can do to tackle climate change. As economic concern continues to rise we will maintain our focus on the money savings that can be achieved too. We appreciate the opportunity Greenbang has given us to highlight (and debate) this important point.
If you want to find out how the media is really shaping up these days, get yourself down to Greenbang’s mate Bernhard Warner’s event on social media influence.
While there are people speaking who get the blog thing, there are a few traditional media types who might pretend to have grasped it, but really have to say that to keep their jobs.
But Greenbang is not naming names today, as it’s a friend’s gig and it looks interesting so good luck to him.
Greenbang was greatly pleased to see that John McCain, the Republican hopeful with his eyes on the White House, has broken ranks with his predecessor and actually admitted that climate change might be a problem that we can do something to fix.
He made a big speech this week saying that he would commit the United States to take action on climate change, to adopt ‘cap and trade’ programmes to help lower emissions, and also work more closely with the European Union to persuade the likes of India and China to act responsibly.
“We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great,” said the old war hero. “I will not shirk the mantle of leadership that the United States bears. I will not permit eight long years to pass without serious action on serious challenges.”
So far, so encouraging. But dig beneath the surface and, well, don’t cheer too soon. It’s interesting that this new-found love of the planet occurred when he found himself in front of workers at a wind power plant in Oregon.
The goal he has set himself are none too ambitious either. He advocated cutting emissions 60 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, by which time the veteran senator will be long dead, and possibly forgotten.
For the record, both Democratic candidates have proposed cutting emissions by 80 percent over the same period.
Greenbang is chuffed to bits to be an official media sponsor of this event.
Check out the promo vid…
Sustainable Environment Foundation, Living in a Low Carbon World Conference 2008, 17th April 2008, 08:30 – 17:15, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR
The Sustainable Environment Foundation conference, ‘Living in a Low Carbon World’, is chaired by James Naughtie of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
The conference will bring together more than 30 world renowned industry and political leaders to discuss the global challenges facing industry and the solutions to combating climate change. They include:
Peter Ainsworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
· Adrian Wyatt, OBE, Chairman, Sustainable Environment Foundation and Chief Executive Officer, Quintain Estates and Development PLC
· Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Chief Executive Officer, Masdar, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company
· James Naughtie, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme
· Zac Goldsmith, Director, The Ecologist (former Editor of The Ecologist for 10 years)
· Sir Duncan Michael, Director, Arup Trustees Company
· Daniel Labbad, Chief Operating Officer, Lend Lease
· Michael Soederlund, Deputy Mayor, Stockholm and City Commissioner, City Building and Traffic
· Liz Peace, Chief Executive Officer, British Property Federation
· James Cameron, Vice Chairman, Climate Change Capital
· Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, Head of Business and Industry, WWF International
· Joan MacNaughton, Senior Vice President, Power and Environmental Policies, Alstom
· Gearoid Lane, Director of Power and Gas Procurement, Centrica
· Bob Taylor, MD, Energy Wholesale E.ON, UK
· Rt Reverend Richard Chartres, Bishop of London
· Graham Whitney, Director of Strategy, Marketing and Change Initiatives, IBM Europe
· Michael Roberts, Director of Business Environment, Confederation of British Industry
· Charlie Mayfield, Chairman, John Lewis Partnership
· Benet Northcote, Chief Policy Advisor, Greenpeace UK
· Pooran Desai, OBE, Co-Founder, BioRegional Development Group
· Paul Everitt, CEO, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
· Paul Plummer, Director of Planning and Regulation, Network Rail
· Paul Spence, Head of Strategy and Business Development, British Energy
· Allan Jones, MBE, Chief Executive Officer, London Climate Change Agency
· Professor William Alsop, OBE RA Founder, SMC Alsop
· Roger Adams, Executive Director of Policy, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
· Martin Couch, Director of European Strategy and Environment, Ofgem
· Charlotte Eddington, Energy & Sustainability Director, CB Richard Ellis
· Paul King, Chief Executive, UK Green Building Council
· Lynda Shillaw, Managing Director of the Property Division, Co-operative Group
· Doug Stewart, Chief Executive Officer, Green Energy UK plc
· Dr David Vincent, Director of Policy, Carbon Trust
· Catherine Witherspoon, Principal, Witherspoon Consulting
Supply chains (yawn) are yet another bit of the compliance picture we now have to look at.
