In today’s world, it has become important for both individuals and companies to work to do their bit for preserving the environment. Worldwide, there is focus and attention to, along with widespread awareness of the impact on our world. There is an increased enlightenment and realization that we each must do our bit to contribute to helping the environment and reducing the negative impact to it. One of the ways of doing this is reducing carbon footprint, which is reducing the amount of air pollution largely contributed to by CO2e (Carbon Dioxide) emissions into the atmosphere. This is something that had been largely ignored in the past, but cannot be ignored any longer, with the impact of global warming and other deadly environmental factors such as air pollution, looming large.
With Delhi/NCR having been found to have deadly PM2.5 levels that are 10 times higher than the safety limit prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and four times higher than even the Indian safety limits in a recent air monitoring survey, our first initiative has been piloted in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Green is not just another catchword
The term ‘Green’ was just a catchword for organizations and individuals to highlight their methodologies to protect the environment. The tide slowly turned to pave the way for the ‘Go green’ initiative, which became a global phenomenon when people started associating it with every business; logistics being no exception.
A proven source of carbon emissions, conventional transport vehicles constitute to nearly 30 per cent of particulate pollution in metro cities. Having a negative impact on the local air quality, transportation of goods also generates noise pollution, leads to accidents and, in totality, makes a high-magnitude input to global warming. Being a major contributor to environment degradation, it became essential for logistics units to follow sustainable practices for their business.
Adhering to these situations, an increased concern for the ecosystem has been observed among the public and government entities. This increased consideration towards nature has also led to an excessive amount of pressure on Indian business firms to decrease the environmental impact of their logistics operation.
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| DOT or ‘Go With DOT’ was founded to provide eco-friendly and sustainable solutions for the logistical needs of individuals and organizations. It offers first and last mile delivery services using its fleet of e-cargo vans and electric bikes. |
E- Mobility is Green Mobility : a sustainable alternatives
The concept of e-mobility is sustainable and can mitigate the problems of air pollution. Among a few players in India, a Delhi based startup DOT is a pioneer in providing environment-friendly and sustainable solutions for logistical needs of individuals and organizations through the concept of green mobility. “The purpose of DOT is to assess how sustainable urban mobility can achieve zero emissions with effective customised mobility solutions,” says Pratik Dasgupta, COO DOT. The services of ‘DOT’ are focussed around creating an eco-system that is electric, safe, cost-effective, sustainable and eco-friendly. When DOT started in 2015, it was observed that there was a gap in mass transit modes; So DOT started E-Bike Taxis for the passengers traveling via mass transit modes like metros and buses, offering them to and fro transportation to their workplaces. “During the lean periods, the same E-bikes were used for delivering packages, which were cost-effective as compared to the conventional existing modes of logistics,” says Pratik.
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| British bread firm Hovis, has introduced all-electric vehicles to its fleet for deliveries up and down the country. |
Need of the hour: Green Logistics
Countering the impact of traditional logistics practices, Green logistics attempts to measure and minimize the ecological impacts of logistics activities. It encompasses a wide variety of sub- sectors viz. warehousing, transportations, packaging, distribution and disposal.
Catering to these benefits, there are firms in India focusing on transportation through environment friendly and sustainable logistics solutions with their green and emission free vehicles thereby contributing towards cleaner environment. Gaining a steady pace, following the path of green mobility services is becoming a common practice amongst various firms in the country.
Corporates and individuals are shifting towards using green and environment friendly logistics services with sustainable development goals. However government’s intervention by laying down regulations and enforcing them is still vital. Corporates also need to support such green initiatives and other firms following suit, not just for their own carbon foot print but caring about the environment while they economize on their logistics costs over all.
As adoption requires capital and it can only come when companies do realize that this over all impacts their carbon foot print care to environment and customers while sincerely incentivizing initiatives so they can grow and plough back earnings into more research and product development. Electric vehicle owners can use solar or renewable sources and can be given incentives from the government to sell energy back to the grid at peak times.
Though now large corporates are extensively partnering to push for sustainable business practices with twin-fold objective of cutting down costs and contributing their share to the Environment, going green has still not become an advantage for Indian logistics industry due to consumer indifference. In other words, not all the logistics firms have realized the compatibility of green logistics with their mainstream services.
But with the constantly changing scenarios, the time is not far when both consumers and entrepreneurs will become accustomed to green logistics practices and will implement them in full swing which will further lead to the booming of Indian logistics sector while maintaining the originality of our environment.