Just 10 percent of businesses are managing the greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains, with more than a third having no clue about the size of their supply chain carbon footprint, according to new survey.

Though most companies have introduced at least one green initiative in their warehouses, most are losing out on the opportunity to make a bigger dent the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their goods by failing to take a holistic view of their environmental impacts, a survey from Accenture found.

To help the industry, the consulting firm and World Economic Forum teamed up to also produce a report (PDF) offering a set of steps that can halve supply chain emissions related to transportation and logistics.

"The study findings demonstrate that the vast majority of organizations are taking steps to reduce carbon emissions," Jonathan Wright, senior executive of Accenture's supply chain management practice, said in a statement. "However, most are implementing carbon-reduction solutions without understanding their carbon footprint and are therefore unable to measure real impact those solutions are having on their emissions."

According to the report, "Supply Chain Decarbonization," the logistics and transport sector produces about 5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

It identifies 13 opportunities for cutting the industry's emissions in half. The top five with the greatest carbon-cutting potential, which could wipe out a quarter of the industry's total greenhouse gas emissions if fully implemented, include: switching to more fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles to reduce emissions by 175 mega-tonnes; slowing down transport of road vehicles and ships while increasing load sizes to save 171 mega-tonnes of CO2; optimizing manufacturing location to take advantage of lower carbon-intensive electricity generation; and reducing packaging to avoid 132 mega-tonnes of emissions.