Are greener warehouse design practices more expensive?
The jury’s divided. Some experts say that green materials are 5 to 7 percent more expensive. Others say these materials are comparably priced. But most of them agree that many green investments usually pay for themselves fairly quickly.
Thankfully many green warehousing initiatives wind up being both sustainable and cost-effective, because their emphasis is on minimizing waste and improving efficiency. So it’s a win-win for everyone.
Consider the effect of installing skylights in a facility. Not only does this allow companies to use fewer artificial lights and reduce ongoing electricity consumption in a DC, it also tends to create a more pleasant work environment. Even small window installations can result in huge lighting and morale improvements.
Or think about forklifts. They may not log as many miles as trucks or trains. But they still cover a fair amount of ground each year, and some of that ground is probably highly unnecessary. Simply shortening the journey between a facility’s most popular products’ storage slots and the loading dock via a product slotting optimization can significantly reduce a company’s forklift energy requirements—and ultimately its overall expense.
On a broader scale, if a company has given its DC personnel Lean training, the chances are good that some of the money-saving projects they’ve implemented are related to better energy use. Our company’s warehousing line of business launched a Lean initiative a couple of years ago, and while all of the nearly $8 million we’ve saved can’t be tied to carbon footprint reductions, many of them can.
The green-equals-saving-more-money formula is true on the transportation side of the equation, too. For example, ocean transportation is both up to 96 percent greener and at least 75 percent less expensive than air. And not only can an intermodal move cut fuel use and greenhouse gas production by as much as 65 percent on moves greater than 1,000 miles, it’s also less expensive.