The last decade has seen a tremendous increase in the public and government concern for the environment. As a
result there has been an excessive amount of pressure on major firms to reduce the environmental impact of their
logistics operations. This has risen to a varied impact, in terms of the choice of externalities and the distances over
which their undesirable effects are felt. Transportation of goods has a negative impact on the local air quality,
generates noise pollution, leads to accidents and, in totality, makes a noteworthy input to global warming.
The impact of logistics on weather change has called for increasing attention in recent years, partially because
increasing controls on pollution and road safety improvements have alleviated the other environmental problems.
Also, new scientific research has exposed that global warming presents a much greater and more instantaneous
threat than earlier thought.
It is expected that goods transportation accounts for around 8% of energy-related Carbon Dioxide emissions
worldwide. The inclusions of warehousing and freight management are likely to add another 3% to this total. Making
logistics sustainable in the longer term will involve more than cutting carbon emissions. Despite recent
improvements, the potential still exists to cut the other environmental costs of logistics by a significant margin.