By emily

April 4, 2008 - A new report establishes what top-performing companies already know - that greener supply chains deliver business benefits in energy cost reduction, logistics cost reduction, and perceived competitive advantage.

The report, from research firm Aberdeen Group, grilled supply chain execs about their sustainability efforts, revealing that the most successful (or "best-in-class") companies were more likely to have had green supply chain initiatives in place for at least a year, and to have redesigned key parts of their supply chains to be green.

Such best-in-class companies enjoyed significant advantages over their competitors, according to the report, achieving a:

2% decrease in their overall logistics and transport costs, versus 1% increase for average performers, and a 4% increase for laggards6% decrease in energy costs, versus no change for average performers and a 7% increase for laggards2% decrease in the cost of operations and facilities, versus no change for average performers and a 4% increase for laggards

Unsurprisingly, best-in-class companies were also 1.5 times more likely than all others to have implemented cross-functional metrics across their enterprise.

The desire to be seen as a thought leader for sustainability initiatives was the top reason for pursuing green supply chain initiatives (cited by 51% of respondents), followed by the need to control rising fuel and energy costs (49%), the demands to improve competitive advantage and market differentiation (48%), and the requirement to meet current and expected government regulatory and compliance demands (31%).

"Green supply chain initiatives have clearly moved beyond greenwashing and into delivering significant business value," says Robert Shecterle, VP of supply chain research at Aberdeen. "Thought-leading companies are driving top line revenue growth through improved competitive advantage, as well as bottom-line savings in energy, logistics, compliance, and improved supply management processes with their green/sustainability programs."

Order the report here. (Note: Through May 27, 2008, a free copy of the report is available for users who register here.)