The 6-percent solution
Nearly 6 percent of greenhouse gases generated by humans are due to the flow of products to consumers. The good news is that corporations could significantly lower these emissions by systematically analyzing their supply chain logistics, suggests David Simchi-Levi, a professor in MIT’s Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The bad news, he adds, is that not enough companies analyze their emissions data in a thorough way.“This is a big problem,” says Simchi-Levi. “If you just do back-of-the-envelope calculations about logistics, supply chains and emissions, you can arrive at misleading conclusions.” In his new book, Operations Rules, published this fall by MIT Press, Simchi-Levi outlines a variety of ways companies can improve their logistics — in particular, by using data and analytics to reduce the impact of supply chains on the environment. Consider “food miles,” the distance a food product travels to market, a common statistic...