Another pallet provider, Intelligent Global Pooling System (iGPS) also makes plastic pallets, which share the weight and durability benefits of the AIRDEX pallets and also include an added feature that can help companies boost transportation efficiency: passive, integrated RFID transponders. These embedded devices do not require batteries and are encoded with a unique identification number that is captured by RFID readers stationed in warehouses or distribution centers, or by handheld readers that shipping personnel carry.

These IDs are associated in backend software with the products being carried on the pallets and with the shipment manifests and orders associated with the products, which can translate into fewer shipping errors and less transportation waste.

When it comes to addressing shipping inefficiencies and making strategic changes to business processes toward reducing fuel consumption, packaging companies, manufacturers and shippers need to work in tandem. Industrial and consumer packaging company Sonoco has worked with many of its consumer goods customers in order to evaluate and change the types of Sonoco packaging materials used for consumer goods.

"A key element and trend in packaging overall," says Roger Shrum, Sonoco staff vice president of Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, "is using less material, less weight, and better design to allow more of the packaging in a load that is going to our customers, which gives them more packaging materials with fewer shipments."

A prime example of this rethinking is baby formula, he says. "In the last year, I would estimate 75 to 80 percent of the companies that sell formula -- Mead Johnson, Abbot, Nestlé, all the majors -- have converted from all-metal cans to composite cans [paperboard with metal end-caps]. A lot of this is driven around the rising cost of steel, but it's also part of company sustainability programs, because the lighter packaging uses less fuel in transit."

Because of the energy intensity required to keep products within their safe temperature and humidity parameters during transport, the perishables supply chains create an exceptionally large carbon footprint. But Minneapolis-based firm Entropy Solutions believes it has a shipping tool that will drastically lessen the waste and energy-consumption associated with shipping perishable products, such as extremely valuable and temperature-sensitive biologic agents such as pharmaceuticals or blood.

Traditionally, these goods are shipped in Styrofoam-lined cardboard boxes that are disposed or recycled after each shipment. Entropy Solutions' Green Box is comprised of a plastic outer layer, followed by insulated layers made of nanotechnology-based carbon silica that is enclosed in vinyl and vacuum sealed, and a second inner layer made of a polymer that can keep items inside the box as cold as -20 degrees C or as hot as +50 degrees C for up to 120 hours -- without requiring a temperature-controlled environment. This means using temperature-controlled shipping containers could become a thing of the past.

According to Steve Skallerud, Entropy's vice president of marketing, Wal-Mart has been testing the Green Box for shipping pharmaceutical products to a central distribution center in Florida for nearly a year. The box has 65 percent more room for product than Styrofoam-lined perishable shipping boxes of the same dimensions, and therefore a great payload capacity and a greater quantity of a temperature-sensitive product can be transported in each truckload. And because the temperature of the products can be maintained for so long, users can opt for shipping the goods via ground rather than air, which can save them money while lessening fuel consumption, says Skallerud.

And while innovations in packaging and transportation modes are vital to lowering transportation's impacts on the environment, so are changes to the business tools that drive the supply chain. Many providers of transportation management software -- the analytical tools that companies use to coordinate shipping activities -- are adding features such as calculators that determine the carbon output linked to various shipment modes and delivery schedules, or routing tools that determine the best trucking routes for making multiple delivery and pick-up stops.

Shippers or customers, such as green-minded retail customers making online purchase -- can use tools such as these to determine how to ship product while minimizing fuel consumption -- and lower-impact choices. While they often take more time in transit, fuel-saving shipping options often cost less than faster ones, which benefits the shipper's bottom line, as well as that of the customer.