Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) announced on June 7, 2004, that it will use its Web site to publicize efforts by companies to reduce the environmental impacts of their logistics (movement of goods and materials). By doing so MLIT aims to promote corporate environmental management, particularly in terms of their distribution systems.

Over recent years, in their environmental reports more and more companies have described their approaches relating to physical distribution, such as "modal shifting," introduction of low-emission vehicles and joint transport systems, and have calculated the resulting CO2 emissions reductions. The ministry, taking note of that, decided to create a database on such information and release it to the public.

In addition to taking excerpts from corporate environmental reports, the environmental logistics database provides objective information that shows how far the companies' environmental management is progressing in terms of physical distribution. This includes information on the acquisition of ISO 14001 certification and Green Management certification (by the EcoMo Foundation in Japan), projects approved by the ministry's own subsidy system for testing low-impact distribution systems, and awards for environmental management. The database also contains brief comments by the companies on their approaches to environmentally friendly logistics.

The database has been started with information on 22 companies from the retail, manufacturing, transport and other industries. MLIT is planning to cover more companies in the database and is asking other companies for information.



Posted: 2004/08/19 11:03:24 AM
Japanese version

TAG Global warming , Government , Manufacturing industry , Non-manufacturing industry , System/Law , Transportation