On June 11, the Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce in New York recognized the world’s leading generator of wind energy, the Spanish utility Iberdrola, with its coveted Business Leader of the Year Award. In honor of the company’s billions in investment in green energy initiatives, the Spanish chamber pulled out all the stops to make its annual black-tie event its greenest gala ever. To do so, the chamber turned to First Global Xpress to ensure that its international shipping was the greenest on the market.

“FGX is pleased to have partnered with the Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce in its efforts to take action to lessen the negative environmental impact of its shipping operations,” says Justin Brown, CEO of FGX.

“At FGX, we are dedicated to converting your international shipping into greener operations,” says Mr. Brown. “We hope to encourage companies in the international space to think about what they could be doing to have a positive impact on the environment.”

Shrinking Your Carbon Footprint
Through its unique business model, FGX is able to shrink the carbon footprint of its clients’ international shipments. The company can also work with clients’ internal mail rooms to reduce their own carbon footprint.

FGX believes that it is a greener shipper because it ships direct, bypassing the hub-and-spoke system typical of large international integrators such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL.

For a package sent from New York City to London, the standard practice is to ship from its point of origin in New York City to a hub, such as Memphis, Tenn., which is in the opposite direction from its destination in Europe. From there, it travels to either Brussels or Paris, hub locations for Europe, before being sent on to its final destination in London.

“The hub-and-spoke system is wasteful and drastically increases the mileage your international package travels,” says Mr. Brown. “FGX partners with more than ninety international airlines to be able to do something revolutionary—bypass the hub-and-spoke system. With FGX, your international packages ship direct to their final destination, without passing through out-of-the-way hubs on two continents.”

In the particular case of a shipment from New York City to London, the integrator’s shipment will travel 5,727 miles, while the First Global Xpress package will travel just 3,473 miles.

Beyond the waste from extra mileage, consider the following:

• - Passing shipments through hubs means all packages must be sorted an extra four to five times.
• - Passing shipments through multiple hubs means that a package requires at least two flights, not to mention two takeoffs, which are the most gas-guzzling portion of the flight.

Once these elements are included, FGX believes that integrators such as FedEx probably use about twice as much energy to get a package to its final destination as FGX.

Regarding carbon emissions, a 3-lb package that travels 5,727 miles on two flights is responsible for the release of 28.4 lbs of CO2 or more into the upper atmosphere. The same shipment that is shipped direct is responsible for the release of 17.2 lbs of CO2. This equation does not take into consideration the integrator’s energy usage at the many hubs, nor the fuel burn ratio for takeoff versus cruising altitude (for example, FedEx uses three flights when delivering to London).

Multiplying this out over a year, if a company ships one thousand 3-lb packages annually through a hub-and-spoke integrator like FedEx, a total of 28,400 lbs of CO2 would be released into the atmosphere.

By shipping direct, the same scenario would lead to 17,200 lbs of CO2 emissions, a difference of 11,200 lbs.

“Companies can immediately slash their carbon footprint simply by choosing a shipper that ships direct,” says Mr. Brown. “It’s that easy.”

FGX’s figures on carbon emissions have been supplied by www.ShipGreen.net, an online carbon calculator. This firm, which launched in September 2007, allows retailers to tie its carbon calculator into their websites to help consumers understand the environmental consequences of their shipping choices. The carbon calculator was developed in conjunction with the Arpad Horvath, PhD and Cristiano Facanha, PhD, both from the University of California, Berkeley, department of civil and environmental engineering.

Greenifying Its Operations
FGX has taken a pledge to greenify its operations, and the company is documenting its progress through its blogsite, ShipGreener.com. FGX is aiming to reduce its carbon footprint by 75 percent by the end of 2008.

The company is changing everything about how its operation conducts itself to what kind of impact the firm’s operations are having on the environment. This will have an effect not only on the company’s carbon footprint, but also on each of its clients’.

For any company, shipping inherently accounts for a large percentage of its carbon footprint. By FGX making itself greener, the firm’s clients can ultimately reduce their carbon footprints as well.

“The business has a lot of moving parts,” says Mr. Brown, “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 being used, the vans the couriers are driving, and the means by which goods are transported.

“To the extent that we pollute less,” says Mr. Brown, “we’ll be able to bring that efficiency to our clients.”

FGX plans to reduce its carbon footprint and make its operations more environmentally friendly through the following:

• - Swap out packaging materials for greener alternatives. Xpress envelopes, Xpress pouches, windows that get stuck on the package, boxes, bubble wrap, peanuts, and air pillows, among others. There will be no sacred cows, not even bubble wrap.
• - Source examples of biodegradable courier bags. These are the bags used to hold shipments that get loaded directly into the bellies of commercial aircraft. This effort could be a challenge, since these bags must be waterproof.
• - Analyze the energy usage of all machines and appliances in the business. FGX is looking at everything that draws electricity from the firm’s physical location and target them for change—Energy Star, large commercial air-conditioning, lighting, printers, copiers, and even the coffee machine.
• - Purchase wind power to provide the electricity in the office. FGX hopes to produce a net savings by shopping around for wind power suppliers; the company will document its costs through its blog.
• - Start a leasing program to put all of its drivers (i.e., couriers) in New York City behind the wheels of hybrids. FGX is concerned about being able to make this fiscally achievable, but is seeking options to make it work.
• - Rewrite the firm’s software to print just one sticky label to affix to the shipment. If a copy is needed it will be sourced from a PDF to minimize printing on paper. This will also allow the elimination of the plastic pouch that is used to hold paper air waybills.
• - Create a reporting system to quantify pollution reductions for each client’s shipping programs. This will be pulled from a client’s monthly shipping report and will be provided with each monthly invoice. FGX believes that it will be very important to quantify for its clients the positive changes for the environment that occur by their choice to use First Global Xpress.
• - Provide its clients with the ability to offset the remaining CO2 production associated with their shipping. FGX is looking for partners to help provide carbon offsets to counter the remaining negative impacts of shipping.

FGX will detail the ups and downs of researching and implementing these changes through its blogsite, www.shipgreener.com. The blog will also offer interviews and will report on environmental happenings in New York City as well.

Tags: air pillows, biodegradable plastics, bubble wrap, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, carbon offsets, DHL, environment, FedEx, green appliances, green business practices, green energy, green packaging, green shipping, hub-and-spoke, hybrid vehicles, Iberdrola, mail rooms, peanuts, ShipGreen.net, Shipping, shipping direct, Spain-US Chamber of Commerce, sticky labels, University of California Berkeley, UPS, wind power

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