Sustainable is often more economical in textile logistics

23 Jan '14

2 min read

Carrying out sustainable activities in the textile logistics industry can prove to be cost saving for business houses and help in increasing the overall profit.

Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, Mr. Tomas Sonntag, Member of Executive Committee, Logwin AG commented, “The fact is that the more environment-friendly (sustainable) solution is also often the more economical one.”

“Consider the case of e-freight, i.e. paperless transport handling for air freight. It is not only more secure and transparent, but it also saves many tons of paper and additional fuel, which would be required to transport the shipping documents. The switch to paperless processing naturally costs a great deal of money, but the investment pays for itself in the long run and we reduce costs,” he says citing an example.

He opines that energy costs and packaging materials are the most important aspects in the overall expenditure in textile logistics industry. Intelligent logistics conserves resources because it ensures optimum capacity utilization of individual means of transportation.

On a similar note, Musa Rubin, Senior Consultant, Rovetex AG states, “Using reusable pallets and wrapping is one of the sustainable activities which can also reduce cost in textile logistics. Although the material has to be returned, there is almost always a return transit that can carry the reusable carriers and covers. The material cost is lower and there is no disposal cost. Of course, this is more useful in domestic shipments than with exports.”

There is no question that improvement to sustainable activities will reduce the logistic costs in textile manufacturing, which will eventually reduce overall costs in the textile supply chain, he adds.

“The issue is not solely of cost reduction and improved profitability, which certainly is there. But real big benefits come from improved market position, greater sales, and in some cases, greater margins from being able to offer value added logistics services,” Musa concludes.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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