SUSTAINABILITY

By FedEx | First published: October 23, 2023   Updated: February 27, 2025

Estimates show that a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions comes from a company’s supply chain. With the right data insights, you can optimize your sustainability strategy.

• Green supply chain strategies are growing in popularity as businesses face more scrutiny over their carbon footprint.
• Sustainable supply chain management relies on the right tools, data insights and technology, enabling in-depth operational oversight.
• The FedEx Sustainability Insights tool is a handy calculator that helps businesses track shipping emissions and better understand their environmental impact.

Have you ever wondered how sustainable your supply chain is? With a growing interest in the overall sustainability of business operations, SMEs of all sizes are exploring ways to measure and reduce their environmental impact.

A business’s supply chain can account for more than 90% of its total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, surpassing emissions from operations. With supply chains generating around 60% of all carbon emissions globally, addressing supply chain sustainability is essential for achieving net-zero goals.

In some regions, governments are ramping up climate regulations on multiple fronts, from sustainable production and ethical procurement to supply chain due diligence. Some are directly putting pressure on businesses to act on carbon emissions.

Consumer expectations are changing, too. Through our “What’s Next In E-Commerce” survey, we found that 7 out of 10 consumers in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region prefer to buy from companies with an effective ESG strategy in place. The same number believe that access to sustainable options for online shopping is just as important as receiving goods quickly. Clearly, green supply chain strategies are in demand.

With greater scrutiny and consumer concern, businesses need tools to measure, understand, and act on supply chain emissions. This process has historically been difficult, with laborious paper chains and correspondence required to extract emissions data from suppliers.

Looking for ways to measure your supply chain impact or keep customers informed? Check out our tips to help SMEs and e-commerce businesses meet their sustainability targets:

Access carbon emissions data and insights for greater visibility

An effective supply chain sustainability strategy is the sum of many collective wins. Obtaining carbon emissions data is essential. With the full picture in place, businesses can pivot as needed, and provide stakeholders with greater transparency.

A great place to start is by digitizing carbon data. SMEs can identify carbon hotspots in the supply chain and take action to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions. They can also report emissions to suppliers and stakeholders more efficiently.

FedEx® Sustainability Insights follows this approach. It allows FedEx customers to view the estimated carbon emissions data of their shipments. Created by FedEx Dataworks, a cloud-based engine uses near-real-time FedEx network data to consolidate metrics, including mode of transport, service type, and country or territory for all eligible FedEx shipments. This enables greater transparency in reporting and the ability to plan more strategically.

Customers can run a shipping emissions report by various metrics, view total carbon emissions data, and instantly export reports.

Work with a logistics provider that takes climate impact seriously

Businesses have a responsibility to operate more sustainably. SMEs account for a massive 90% of businesses worldwide, and have the power to create real impact by adopting sustainable practices.

When it comes to tackling sustainability, it’s also important to work with the right providers to get the job done. The transportation industry contributes significantly to greenhouse gases, accounting for nearly one quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions. 

As connectors in the chain, logistics providers have a role to play in reducing environmental impact and meeting consumer expectations. That’s why, at FedEx, we continue to innovate our operations in this space. 

A major goal is to achieve global carbon-neutral operations by 2040. To meet this, we’re reducing emissions and waste, replacing older technologies and vehicles, and modernizing facilities.

FedEx® Sustainability Insights is part of a suite of digital tools available for businesses to level up their green practices. It has the potential to create future opportunities for network efficiency through data-backed predictive insights and modelling.

With the right tools to unlock supply chain carbon emissions data, businesses can focus on ESG solutions and take positive action to reduce their environmental footprint, ultimately winning the trust and respect of customers, communities, and stakeholders.

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Head here for more stories on sustainability, covering everything from supply chain strategies to the latest in the electric vehicle landscape.