Your package that absolutely, positively has to be there is an environmental nightmare.

You probably didn’t know that you shipments take the scenic route on their way to its final destination. The reason I say this is, if you’re like most businesses, you’re supporting or contracting with either FedEx, UPS or DHL.

Without a doubt, these large shipping companies have been wildly successful and have revolutionized global commerce. Yet they waste time and resources with their routing processes. First Global Xpress believes that their hub-and-spoke shipping system is antiquated and not the most efficient way to ship internationally. It’s most certainly not the most efficient way for the environment.

What is a hub-and-spoke system?
The integrators (FedEx, DHL and UPS) use a tonnage-driven, hub-and-spoke system that “integrates” the shipments that they collect from all over the United States. The integrators combine all of these shipments at huge hub locations to be sorted and shipped out to the hub closest to its final destination. For FedEx, an example of this would be Memphis, Tenn., which is the sorting hub it uses on all eastbound international shipments. It’s also the hub for all of the United States.

I would like to share with you the tracking for a test shipment that I sent via FedEx a couple of days ago. The shipment originated in New York City and was destined for London. (See below for tracking.)

NEW YORK, NY
7:51 PM
Package data transmitted to FedEx

NEW YORK, NY
8:23 PM
Picked up

NEWARK, NJ
11:32 PM
Left origin

MEMPHIS, TN
Mar 26, 2008 11:54 PM

MEMPHIS, TN
1:03 AM
Arrived at FedEx location

That seems odd. I’m shipping from NYC to England. Why’s my package going west to Tennessee before going east to London? How much fuel does that waste?

In the next post, we’ll take this mileage and show you what your carbon footprint is for both shipping via a direct route from NYC to London, as well as by indirectly shipping through the integrators’ hubs.

We’re making our business greener. You’re invited to watch.

We’re an international shipper based in New York City. And we pollute. Yes, that’s right. I said it. We pollute.

But today our company is making the commitment that over the next nine months-by the end of 2008-we will reduce our carbon footprint by 66% to become the most environmentally responsible air courier in the United States. Through this blog, you’re invited to watch us convert from a business that pollutes to one that is lean and green.

First Global Xpress
Before I launch into the hows and whys of what we’re going to do, let me tell you a little bit about us. First Global Xpress services the international express shipping market. We are unique because we ship directly to our client’s final destination via commercial flights, rather than using the typical hub-and-spoke system of large integrators like FedEx, UPS, or DHL. This model of shipping direct is by far the best option for the environment when an international delivery has to be completed in one to three days.

Our blog: ShipGreener.com
Through ShipGreener.com, I am going to document the changes that First Global Xpress is making to become greener. We will be changing everything about how our operation conducts itself and what kind of impact we are having on the environment. This will have an effect not only on our company’s carbon footprint, but also on our client’s footprint as well. We are an important part of our clients’ businesses and we service a sector of their company that inherently accounts for a large percentage of their footprint. By making ourselves greener, we make our clients greener as well.

There are many things that all businesses could do to lessen their impact on the environment. We are in the enviable position of being able to drastically reduce our impact through very attainable goals. Our business has a lot of moving parts, and where there is something moving or being produced there is room to make it more efficient. Some examples of this are in the packaging we are using, the vans our couriers are driving, and the means by which we transport our goods.

To the extent that our business pollutes less, we’ll bring that efficiency to our clients. In turn, we’ll show that their choice of First Global Xpress is that much more powerful and correct. We’ll document these changes so you’ll be able to see the quantitative differences derived from simple changes.

By the end of 2008, our goal is to have reduced the current carbon footprint of our business by 66%.

We’re currently working on a plan of how to benchmark our goals to represent exactly what 100% is. Considering the nature of our business, it is probably safe to say that 100% is not attainable. But once the plan is officially fleshed out, the metrics of our progress will be represented on our website by a green bar that increases as we hit our goals (look for this by Wednesday 04/02). The goals will be clearly stated on the bar with some kind of roll over functionality.

Some of our initial ideas for reducing our carbon footprint are: Read More

As mentioned in the above video I really enjoy this restaurant. I have spent some time speaking to the owner and appreciate his outlook and enthusiasm. His excitement is not only pertaining to his restaurant, but also for doing his part to drive the market towards eating more organically and in turn driving the overall cost of purchasing organics down.

Gusto is the first USDA Certified Organic Restaurant in New York.

They are the first restaurant in the country to use 100% of its ingredients USDA Certified Organic.

PLUS Gusto is a Green Certified Restaurant certified by the Green Restaurant Association. Please see their 22 steps to go Green (they just now added Wind Energy and new water saving improvements)
22 Steps to go green

Gusto also provides to it’s Guests 99% Pure water for free. They use a top notch Italian technology to purify New York’s water (one of the best in the country) and run their water through a UV lamp that kills all the bacteria…Gusto uses this pure water to cook absolutely everything and to drink.. (they are completely against bottled water because in their opinion “it is such a tremendous waste that makes no sense at all”

Check out what the hispanicentrepreneur.blogspot has to say about Alberto and his Restaurant HERE

Be sure to check out the website http://www.gustorganics.com/

I have spoken to Alberto and he would like it if you would…

“Please comment with your feedback about how to improve our concept because our vision is to bring Organics into the mainstream, a task that can only be done with your support and the help of the community.” - Alberto

What do you think about Organic ingredients? Do you prefer to eat them already? do you wish they were more affordable? is it all a crock s&*!?

Alberto has promised to check the comments in this post and participate in the conversation…

We are soft launching the new ShipGreener.com blog space in an effort to work out some URL and linking issues. If you are reading this, check back on Monday for the hard launch of the Blog. We are going to use this blog to talk about the goings-on in our industry and how we are doing our part to help the environment and conserve its resources.

As you may know, First Global Xpress operates by utilizing an already existing infrastructure of commercial flights to ship our clients’ goods all over the world. Not only is that part of our business a more efficient system of shipping, but we are also going to be changing how our business physically operates to bring about another level of sustainability. Check back to learn more about what we are doing.

P.S.: We will also feature interviews and segments with interesting and important people involved with this essential cause.