2. Empower our employees to drive innovation: Environmental sustainability has long been a priority for Hasbro. One of the ways we’ve pursued that priority is by changing the culture of our logistics team – encouraging and empowering our people to identify and take ownership of the ways their work positively impacts the environment and our business. The team feels vested in driving sustainable change and cost savings, and in the process these employees have become sustainability champions. This approach is a key part of our company culture, and it’s an example of how the creativity of our people continues to drive the future of our company.

In fact, when Hasbro received a 2012 Environmental Protection Agency “Excellence in Greenhouse Gas Management” Climate Leadership Award, the EPA noted that we have created a cultural change by training and empowering our employees to identify opportunities for saving energy, which drives sustainable change.

3. Align with sustainable partners and logistics providers: Look outside of your organization to engage with like-minded, innovative partners who also recognize the value of sustainable change. For example, one of our third-party logistics providers – NFI Industries – started a solar company, and its working to extend the benefits of solar to its clients, including Hasbro. NFI’s solar investment helps reduce the carbon footprint of our supply chain, and we also worked with the company to determine if a solar project made sense for one of our own facilities. This is a prime example of a supply chain partner implementing practices that help make our own operations more sustainable.

These focus areas have played a major role in the efficiencies we’ve achieved so far. As reported in our inaugural CSR Report in 2011, 80 percent of Hasbro products were moved to the seaport closest to our manufacturing facilities in China, and we reached a 90 percent container utilization rate by maximizing space inside each container.

Now we’re using these same approaches to tackle more complex logistics challenges. We’re continuously working to reduce the size of our packaging, which enables us to fit more product into the same size container and eliminate wasted space. We’re also continuing to implement analytical and modeling tools throughout the organization to help people understand how supply chain enhancements impact their business and enable them to improve and align their own practices with our logistics processes. And, of course, we’ll continue to look for opportunities to collaborate with logistics partners who can help us drive further improvements.

Continuous improvement...employee empowerment...sustainable partnerships. Think of them as three rungs of a ladder that can put that middle-hanging fruit within your grasp – and position you to reach even higher.

Image of Globe with transport mix by Login via Shutterstock.