Can green logistics help Vietnam change the "grey" smoke color?

1. Current situation of green logistics in Vietnam.

Transportation costs account for a large proportion of the total costs in the logistics industry, ranging from 50% to 60%. On average, each year, transportation activities emit about 30 million tons of CO2 into the environment. The main causes come from carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels in the production and transportation process.

• Road transportation: The demand for road freight transport in our country is significant: transporting raw materials from suppliers to FDI enterprises, transporting goods from warehouses to ports and vice versa, causing difficulties in reducing carbon emissions. Companies still have limitations in resources to implement green transport projects by replacing fossil fuel vehicles with vehicles using renewable fuels.

• Rail transportation: Vietnam's rail transport has not been invested in proportion to its exploitation potential. There are still old and outdated freight cars, lacking many container cars. Additionally, rail transport also emits harmful gases, pollutes noise, and there is still the phenomenon of waste being directly discharged along the railway, affecting people living around that area. With limitations in vehicles and related impacts, the domestic rail system must make more efforts to meet the increasing demand for goods as it is today.

• Air transportation: Aircraft emissions pollute the most sensitive areas of the atmosphere, accounting for 5% of the total CO2 emissions from all vehicles discharged into the environment. The smoke from airplanes is also a cause of gradual warming of the earth.

• Water transportation: Water transport is the main method used when exporting goods abroad. However, due to lack of investment, water vehicles are still outdated and lack emission treatment systems. Ho Chi Minh City, with many ports concentrated here, emits a very large amount of CO2 every year.

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  Plastic waste is one of the most commonly discharged wastes into the environment during production and daily life. Large cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City discharge about 80 tons of plastic waste into the environment every day, with most of this plastic waste not being recycled, greatly affecting the living environment.
  Currently, businesses still use traditional methods to store information, which is storing on paper files. Paper files including various types of invoices, contracts, etc., are stored for several years.

2. Innovative solutions to advance towards green logistics.

In the era of rapid digital technology advancement, the world is changing every day. If Vietnam does not change and innovate daily, it will fall behind and struggle to keep up with the rapid development of giants. Therefore, the government collaborates with businesses to propose solutions for innovation and development of green logistics for the country's economy.

Government solutions:

• Invest in the budget to build infrastructure, improve and upgrade old, outdated infrastructure, enhance quality in line with modern trends, energy efficiency, and create favorable conditions for multimodal transportation.

• Set limits on the amount of emissions released into the environment, strictly penalize and heavily tax businesses with emissions exceeding permissible limits.

• Implement various policies to encourage and promote businesses towards sustainable development models E.S.G, especially small and medium-sized companies. At the same time, support and raise awareness for logistics companies about the safety and importance of the environment adversely affected by business activities.

• Continue to improve a comprehensive legal framework for green logistics operations, particularly regulations on air pollution control, limiting CO2 emissions and harmful emissions from transport vehicles, encouraging businesses to use clean energy as a substitute for fossil fuels.

Business solutions:

• Implement and apply advanced technology in managing records and data. Instead of using traditional paper-based storage methods, businesses can use modern software to manage records on information technology platforms, saving forest resources and storage space for paper records over many years.

• Improve the quality of transport services from within the company, using modern transport vehicles, saving energy, consuming clean energy sources instead of fossil fuels that have a negative impact on the environment.

• Utilize state policies and incentives for application within their own business.

• Collaborate between service providers and users of logistics services for the most effective solutions.

• Raise awareness among company employees, communicate about environmental protection and green logistics will be the foundation for sustainable business development.

International Logistics Corporation (InterLOG Corp) is a pioneer in proposing solutions towards the sustainable development model E.S.G - economic growth and minimizing negative impacts on the environment. With nearly 20 years of experience in the logistics field, InterLog always provides customers with the best services, the most effective solutions to bring economic efficiency without harming the green lungs of humanity. This year, InterLog aims for the "Green" goal - focusing on providing green solutions to help customers save costs and reduce emissions into the environment. A series of solutions provided by InterLog such as utilizing pallets for transporting goods, consolidating goods at warehouses, etc., all aim to help businesses achieve strong economic growth and sustainable development in the future.