Victoria Kickham, an editor at large for Supply Chain Quarterly, started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for Supply Chain Quarterly's sister publication, DC Velocity.
The Biden Administration took a step closer to its emissions reduction goals this week with the release of an interagency “blueprint” to decarbonize the nation’s transportation sector. The plan addresses all passenger and freight travel modes and fuels, and is the first deliverable following an agreement last year between the U.S. Departments of Energy (DOE), Transportation (USDOT), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The blueprint lays out a plan for achieving the administration’s goals to secure a 100% clean electrical grid by 2035 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Among the goals identified this week, the agencies are: aiming for 30% of sales of new medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses to be zero-emission by 2030 and 100% by 2040, and ensuring that 100% of the federal fleet of such vehicles is zero-emission by 2035; encouraging greater use of rail for passenger and freight travel to reduce emissions from road vehicles; and increasing production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to at least three billion gallons per year by 2030 and approximately 35 billion gallons by 2050, enough to supply the entire sector, according to the plan.
The blueprint builds on last year’s Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, which includes a wide range of efforts and investments to address climate concerns and clean energy. The agencies said this week the blueprint will “be followed by more detailed decarbonization action plans,” which they say they will develop in conjunction with state, local, and tribal philanthropic organizations, as well as private agencies and global partners. Additional plans will adhere to three general strategies that address infrastructure, vehicles, and fuels, according to the blueprint:
Increase convenience by supporting community design and land-use planning at the local and regional levels that ensure that job centers, shopping, schools, entertainment, and essential services are strategically located near where people live to reduce commute burdens, improve walkability and bikeability, and improve quality of life.
Improve efficiency by expanding affordable, accessible, efficient, and reliable options like public transportation and rail, and improving the efficiency of all vehicles.
Transition to clean options by deploying zero-emission vehicles and fuels for cars, commercial trucks, transit, boats, airplanes, and more.
Some in the industry have raised concerns about certain aspects of the blueprint. Spokespeople for NATSO, the National Association of Truck Stop Owners, and SIGMA, which represents fuel marketers and convenience store chain retailers, are worried about the implications of the administration’s fuel policies on the trucking industry, for instance. They say the administration is incentivizing investments in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) over trucking industry renewables such as biodiesel, which have been used for more than a decade to lower emissions.
Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act awarded a higher tax credit for SAF than for biodiesel and similar trucking industry renewables, and this week’s blueprint emphasizes those incentives. NATSO and SIGMA argue that because both SAF and biodiesel come from the same feedstocks, producers will be incentivized to make SAF rather than biodiesel, leading to lower availability and higher pricing of clean fuels for trucking. They say parity between the tax credits is necessary to ensure producers continue to make biofuels for trucking fleets.
“Otherwise, we’re really just shifting the emissions savings away from the ground—as fleets are forced to revert away from biodiesel to diesel—and to the air, and that doesn't align with the administration's goal here of decarbonizing the transportation sector,” said Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman, vice president of public affairs for NATSO.
David Fialkov, executive vice president of government affairs for NATSO and SIGMA, said he expects the issue to come under scrutiny as the Inflation Reduction Act and related policies are implemented.
“I anticipate that a lot of members of Congress—including the new majority in the House—will be interested in examining whether it makes sense to keep a heightened creidt for SAF,” he said.
This story was updated on January 12 to include comments from NATSO/SIGMA.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help users build “smart and responsive supply chains” by increasing workforce productivity, expanding visibility, accelerating processes, and prioritizing the next best action to drive results, according to business software vendor Oracle.
To help reach that goal, the Texas company last week released software upgrades including user experience (UX) enhancements to its Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM) suite.
“Organizations are under pressure to create efficient and resilient supply chains that can quickly adapt to economic conditions, control costs, and protect margins,” Chris Leone, executive vice president, Applications Development, Oracle, said in a release. “The latest enhancements to Oracle Cloud SCM help customers create a smarter, more responsive supply chain by enabling them to optimize planning and execution and improve the speed and accuracy of processes.”
According to Oracle, specific upgrades feature changes to its:
Production Supervisor Workbench, which helps organizations improve manufacturing performance by providing real-time insight into work orders and generative AI-powered shift reporting.
Maintenance Supervisor Workbench, which helps organizations increase productivity and reduce asset downtime by resolving maintenance issues faster.
Order Management Enhancements, which help organizations increase operational performance by enabling users to quickly create and find orders, take actions, and engage customers.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Enhancements, which help organizations accelerate product development and go-to-market by enabling users to quickly find items and configure critical objects and navigation paths to meet business-critical priorities.
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.
Businesses were preparing to deal with the effects of the latest major storm of the 2024 hurricane season as Francine barreled toward the Gulf Coast Wednesday.
Louisiana was experiencing heavy rain and wind gusts at midday as the storm moved northeast through the Gulf and was expected to pick up speed. The state will bear the brunt of Francine’s wind, rain, and storm damage, according to forecasters at weather service provider AccuWeather.
“AccuWeather meteorologists are projecting a storm surge of 6-10 feet along much of the Louisiana coast with a pocket of 10-15 feet on some of the inland bays in south-central Louisiana,” the company reported in an afternoon update Wednesday.
Businesses and supply chains were prepping for delays and disruptions from the storm earlier this week. Supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc said the storm will have a “significant impact” on a wide range of industries along the Gulf Coast, including aerospace, life sciences, manufacturing, oil and gas, and high-tech, among others. In a statement, Resilinc said energy companies had evacuated personnel and suspended operations on oil platforms as of Tuesday. In addition, the firm said its proprietary data showed the storm could affect nearly 11,000 manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, fabrication, and testing sites across the region, putting at risk more than 57,000 parts used in everyday items and the manufacture of more than 4,000 products.
Francine, which was expected to make landfall as a category 2 hurricane, according to AccuWeather, follows the devastating effects of two storms earlier this summer: Hurricane Beryl, which hit the Texas coast in July, and Hurricane Debby, which caused $28 billion in damage and economic loss after hitting the Southeast on August 5.
The Raymond Corp. has expanded its energy storage solutions business with the opening of a manufacturing plant that will produce lithium-ion and thin plate pure lead (TPPL) batteries for its forklifts and other material handling equipment. Located in Binghamton, N.Y., Raymond’s Energy Solutions Manufacturing Center of Excellence adds to the more than 100-year-old company’s commitment to supporting the local economy and reinvigorating Upstate New York as an innovation hub, according to company officials and local government and business leaders who gathered for a ribbon cutting and grand opening this week.
“This region has a rich history of innovation,” Jennifer Lupo, Raymond’s vice president of energy solutions, supply chain, and leasing, said in welcoming attendees to the ribbon cutting ceremony Monday.
Lupo referred to the new factory as an “exciting milestone” in Raymond’s history and described it as the next step in the company’s energy storage solutions business, which began nearly 10 years ago with the development of a lithium-ion battery to power its “walkie” pallet jack. That work has expanded to include larger batteries and other technologies to support battery-electric equipment.
“We’re not just keeping up with the electrification movement,” Lupo said. “We’re leading it.”
Raymond, a business unit of Toyota Material Handling, has been building forklifts, pallet jacks, and other material handling equipment at its nearby Greene, New York, headquarters since 1922. The Binghamton factory supports local efforts to boost manufacturing and innovation in New York’s Southern Tier, which was recently designated as a regional technology and innovation hub by the Biden Administration.
Raymond is leasing the 124,000 square foot facility at 196 Corporate Drive, situated in an established industrial park. The manufacturer is currently utilizing just 10,000 square feet of the space to produce its 8250 lithium-ion battery, which can power Raymond’s class 1 and class 2 fork trucks, as well as a smaller TPPL battery for powering pallet jacks.
The Binghamton factory employs 15 people, but the company expects to scale up quickly in space and personnel, adding 12 to 25 employees next year and ramping up to 60 employees by 2027, according to Jim Priestly, battery manufacturing manager for energy solutions at Raymond.
The Binghamton facility also represents Raymond’s larger commitment to helping develop greener, more sustainable supply chains, according to company President and CEO Michael Field.
“We recognize energy’s critical role in shaping our future,” Field told attendees at the grand opening, adding that Raymond is seizing the opportunity to participate in the clean energy transition locally and beyond.
“This facility is just the beginning,” Field said.