Sustainable Solutions for SCM

Operation, transportation and warehousing need energy for their activities, so far mainly in form of electricity, fossil fuels and heat. They all have impacts on the environment. A typical measure for this impact is the emission of carbon dioxide CO 2 from the combustion process. Carbon dioxide is the most common so-called greenhouse gas (GHG). But other even more toxic gases have an influence on the global warming: • Nitrogen oxides NO x . • Nitrous oxide N 2 O. • Methane CH 4 . • Sulphur dioxide SO 2 . • Non-methane hydro carbons NMHC. • Particular matter PM (particle pollution). In order to get a key performance indicator of the environmental impact the emission of a transportation chain is expressed in terms of CO 2 e, carbon dioxide equivalents. It is formed by the mass weights of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide: CO 2 e = CO 2 + 25 CH 4 + 298 N 2 O (6.1) In a combustion process the main gas produced is carbon dioxide. However, taking the weighting factors of methane and nitrous oxide into consideration, these gases could also have a major influence on the environment. Example 1: A 40 feet container is transported from the city of Hamburg in the northern part of Germany to the city of Dresden in the eastern part of Germany. The distance is about 470 km. The total emissions are given in Table 6.1. Table 6.1 Emissions for the truck transport from Hamburg to Dresden (calculation with [3]) Emission Emission (kg) Carbon dioxide 600 Nitrogen oxide 1.63 Sulfur dioxide 0.69 Non-methane hydro carbon 0.265 Particular matter 0.063 CO 2 e 620 Besides greenhouse gases, categories were determined for classifying the environmental impact: a. Resource consumption. b. Land use. c. Greenhouse effect. d. Depletion of the ozone layer. e. Acidification. f. Eutrophication. g. Eco-toxicity.

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