The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) hosted its Annual Global Conference from September 26–29, 2010 in San Diego, California. The conference brought together supply chain professionals from over 40 countries with an aim to help professionals improve their organizations’ supply chain performance. Damco, the logistics arm of A.P. Moller – Maersk which is one of the world’s leading providers of freight forwarding and supply chain management solutions and a pioneer in the field of supply chain emissions reduction presented in the ‘Sustainability’ session on ‘ Ready to Take the Next Step to Becoming a Sustainability Winner?’.
Erling Johns Nielsen, Damco’s Director & Global Head of Supply Chain Development as well as Jordi Avellaneda, Global Head of Green Logistics spoke on how Damco envisions a future in which technological advances, consumer pressure and regulatory requirements will shape the role of the 3PL as supply chain sustainability advisors. The central theme of Damco’s presentation was that sustainability is a good business case for companies as it helps to find efficiencies, reduce costs and generate additional revenue by developing innovative products. Some companies still see sustainability as a hurdle, but over the past five years Damco has observed that companies are moving up the sustainability ladder, using it initially as a source of efficiencies and finally as a source of competitive advantage.