The Mheda Journal

In December of 2010, Congress passed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010. Part of this regulation extended a tax credit for propane usage available to, among others, operators of propane-powered lift trucks. Users of propane are eligible to receive a credit of 50 cents per gallon used through December 31, 2011. Usage is also retroactive to fuel used in 2010. However, claims can only be filed once and must be applied for by August 1, 2011.

Believe it or not, that’s only about 7 weeks away! Distributors can encourage their customers to take advantage of this credit. Thought I would pass the info along before it gets too late!

In celebration of Earth Day later this week, let me return to one of my favorite topics: green business. Often in this space, I’ve written about the philosophy of going green as a business. I’ve summed up the debate about whether going green is a viable business model or a marketing ploy, so I won’t rehash it here. But I came across an article today called “The Many Payoffs of Green Business.” It’s a few months old at this point, but I thought it made some interesting points.

The author, who works for a energy-efficiency nonprofit group (not the most unbiased source, I’ll grant you), makes the case as to why sustainability is the way to go. “The straightforward financial return on investment of sustainability measures is only part of the reason businesses should be committed to reducing their environmental footprints today. There are a host of compelling long-term benefits that businesses reap once they embark on sustainability initiatives—and many of these benefits are ones they often didn’t initially bank on,” she writes.

Here’s the list of her four “fringe benefits” of green business:

• Opportunities for great publicity.
• Better employee engagement.
• Healthier, more comfortable workplaces.
• Time saved in the long run.

You can click the link above to read the explanations for yourself if you want, but it seems like common sense. So, I’m curious what the flip side of the argument is. What are the best reasons for a business to “remain ungreen,” to use a phrase I just made up? I assume cost is one…after all, changes in any business cost money and time in training and implementation, so keeping the status quo would save money, at least in the short-term. But is there more to it than that? Espeially in material handling, with the push toward more energy-efficient trucks, chargers, batteries, conveyors and everything else, I think it’s a compelling question. What are some other legitimate reasons? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

For more than a couple of years now, the value and validity of “going green” has been going on in the material handling industry. Some people say going green is a moral obligation to protect the environment. Others say it’s no more than a selling point to make people look eco-conscious but really doesn’t mean anything. For several years, the movement to go green in material handling has been the buzzword.

Scott Lee

However, according to Scott Lee, president of Conveyor Solutions in Schaumburg, Illinois, the movement is finally starting to get some traction. The biggest way to show customers savings from going green is through what Lee refers to as energy reduction systems. I’ll let him explain.

“It’s not terribly new—the government has been doing it forever—but it really wasn’t pushed out there in commercial world. We now sell customers on the idea of turning off their equipment when they’re not using it. Most customers start up their conveyor system when they walk in the building but don’t start using it for an hour or two. Then it’s like a bell curve, meaning that it’s super busy in the middle of the day and then almost empty at the end of the day. We shut off the parts not being used. It extends the life of the equipment and uses less energy, so there are huge gains to be made on energy reduction in the conveyor industry.”

In some cases, he says, those savings can result in a lightning-quick payback of just one to two months, depending on the system, of course. Thanks, Scott, for your insights. Pretty amazing stuff. So, once again, I’ll throw this question out there: is the green movement in material handling here to stay? What do you think?

As a 2001 graduate of The College of Wooster, I always get excited to see my small liberal arts college in the news. It’s even better when that news intersects with my work in material handling, albeit tangentially.

On Monday, September 20, The College signed a contract with Carbon Vision LLC to install a 20,000 sq. ft. solar roof atop the Scot Center, the new student recreation and facility currently under construction on campus. It will be the largest solar rooftop installation of any college facility in the country, generating 271,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to power a residence hall for the year.

Granted, that has little to do with material handling. But it does remind me that the green movement is still in full force out there, and material handlers and warehouse integrators should still be aware of it. Many articles say that the higher cost of green projects will keep customers from going the more environmentally friendly route, but that is not necessarily the case. Sustainability is still important to many customers, and as the economy improves, they will be willing to pay for it. I’d love to hear any suggestions you have for taking advantage of the green movement in material handling, particularly as money remains tight. Thoughts?

This isn’t my typical blog style, and I promise to get back to more pressing industry news with my next one, but I am so fascinated by this story that I could not pass it up. (It takes place in a warehouse so, techincally, it’s industry related.)

Apparently there is a guy in Brooklyn named Mark Suppes, a web developer for Gucci (the fashion designer), who built a nuclear-fusion reactor in his spare time. Yes, you heard me right.

It is housed in a Brooklyn warehouse, and Suppes has spent more than $35,000 to build his reactor, the 38th independent one ever built. His goal, he says, is to “help solve the world’s energy crisis.” It’s a noble idea, I suppose, since an article on yahoo.com called fusion energy the “holy grail of green technology, since it produces no nuclear waste or greenhouse gases.”

There a lot of ways to go with analysis of this story, but I’ll just say, “Wow.” With all the talk in our industry of green technology and ways to build more efficiency into a warehouse, this isn’t the angle I thought I’d find.

Best of luck to Mr. Suppes and all the “fusioneers” out there.

I ran across this little nugget today while researching our wikiMHEDA headlines. With all the talk still circulating the industry about green technology, I found it interesting.

A company in Buffalo, NY, specializes in eco-friendly products, like turning scrap tires and computer parts into item like wheel stops and sign posts. They have turned their attention to recycling old industrial conveyor belts made of rubber. According to the blog post in Buffalo Business First, “We don’t want to have any waste or have effect on the environment so were taking scrap and making it into different products. We’re going to take old conveyor belts from quarries and mines and cut them out and we have a customer in Texas who makes them into dock bumpers.” The quote is from Deborah Robbins, VP of Rubberform Recycled Products. They expect the process to start as early as next week.

As you’re all aware by now, the theme for MHEDA in 2010 is The Rules Have Changed. This is another example of small business ingenuity at work. If you or your customers have any old conveyor belts lying around, maybe it can return to another customer’s factory as a dock bumper. Full-circle material handling!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

An op-ed piece in Thursday’s The New York Times provided an interesting perspective on green buildings and LEED certification, a topic we’ve covered in this space and in The MHEDA Journal before.

The Times article, titled “Don’t LEED Us Astray,” talks about how LEED certification (a U.S. Green Building Council certification given for incorporating eco-friendly design) has become a bit misguided. “While the standard is well-intentioned, it is also greatly misunderstood. Put simply, a building’s LEED rating is more like a snapshot taken at its opening, not a promise of performance.”

The article suggests that because once a building is built, it’s so difficult to predict what it’s actual green impact will be—after all, a bike rack doesn’t make people ride bikes—follow-up requirements should be implemented. “A number of local, state and federal agencies require LEED certification for their new buildings — so why not have them institute follow-up requirements as well? Buildings that efficiently generate on-site power should be able to claim tax credits. Tenants who reuse paper or install efficient lighting could claim rebates. At the same time, agencies should conduct regular energy-use checkups to ensure that landlords and tenants live up to the promise of their LEED certification—and those that don’t should lose their subsidy.”

I don’t really know enough about LEED to have an opinion, but I did find the argument compelling. I’ll throw it out to all of you: what do you think?

Today is Earth Day; it’s the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, in fact. I learned yesterday that the impetus for Earth Day was the day when my hometown Cuyahoga River notoriously caught on fire near Cleveland, Ohio. Can’t say I was proud to learn that fact, but at least something positive came out of that debacle. (Well, two things, if you count the song “Burn On” by Randy Newman.)

Earth Day seems like as good a time as any to talk about the continuing efforts of our industry to go green and help end-users of material handling equipment (which is virtually everyone) do the same.

The material handling industry is at the forefront of the sustainability movement, whether it’s:

• Reducing forklift emissions
• Warehouses that go up instead of out and preserve more green space
• Turning off power to certain parts of a customer’s warehouse when not in use
• Encouraging adherence to green building codes
• Embracing alternative fuels
• Increasing remanufacturing opportunities.

And just today, I read about a study finding that logistics companies made commitments to sustainability during the recession.

Consider this a tribute to our industry. Keep up the good, green work! (Editor’s note: See The MHEDA Edge Editor’s Blog to read another perspective on Green Material Handling.) Happy Earth Day, everyone!

photo courtesy of Plug Power Inc.

I had the pleasure to interview Warren Brower, product marketing manager at Plug Power Inc., a Latham, NY-based manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells, last week. Mr. Brower was fomerly the marketing manager at Raymond Corporation and joined Plug Power in 2007.

I knew a little bit about hydrogen fuel cells before speaking to Mr. Brower, but now I feel like almost as much of an expert as he is. (I’m not, though…not even close.)

One of the things I found interestng was the go-to-market strategy for his company:

Our intention is not to go out and replace every lead-acid battery out there. We understand that a hydrogen fuel cell is not for every application. The key with fuel cells is to focus on specific applications and specific opportunities in high-volume and high-throughput applications.

Such a strategy is important for distributors to know. Do you have customers out there who are eyeing this technology? Do they fit the “high-throughput” description. If not, they may not be a good candidate for hydrogen fuel cell forklifts.

Another interesting excerpt from our interview:

You’re going to see other applications start to surface where fuel cells make sense instead of using diesel generators, backup lead-acid batteries or whatever. So I think in the next couple to three years, you’re going to see a major push within this field.

So, apparently we’re just scratching the surface with this technology. Although it’s been “a few years out” for more than a few years now, it’s something to continue to keep an eye on.

Anybody out there doing anything interesting with fuel cells? I’d love to hear about it!

Is “green” still a hot topic in material handling? A couple of years ago, it seemed that everywhere you turned, there was an article about new green technologies like fuel cells or LED lighting or something of that ilk. It doesn’t seem to come up as often anymore, so I’m wondering if it is a trend that has fallen by the wayside.

Green projects, for those who may not know, are those that are environmentally friendly, loosely synonymous with energy-efficient, alternative fueled, and/or able to be recycled. “To go green” was the oft-cited response to why customers should switch from IC to electric forklifts, or order a remanufactured part.

At the time, I’m estimating late 2007-2008, material handling wasn’t the only industry touting its green-ness. Automobiles, restaurants, manufacturers, and other businesses touted the benefits of reduced carbon footprints, natural ingredients and all that. I don’t hear about that as much anymore.

So here’s my question: Why? Have green projects been fewer and farther between now that everyone’s in a financial crunch (after all, green solutions often cost more)? Is green expected as a solution, so there’s no reason to market it that way anymore? Was that just a trendy marketing gimmick in the first place? Maybe I’m just not listening and the message is still there? Or another reason?

I’ll leave it to the experts.  What do you think?