- Welcome to another episode of Supply Chain Frontiers, the MIT CTL podcast where we explore the trends, technologies, and innovations shaping the future of supply chain management. I'm your host, Mackenzie Berry. Today we're diving into corporate sustainability. Joining us are members of the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab, Tori Arnold and Sreedevi Rajagopalan, and members of the CH Robinson Sustainability team, Rachel Schwalbach and Brittany Brama. Welcome to the podcast, so glad to have you all on. Could you all go around and introduce yourselves and the work that you do?

- My name is Sreedevi, I'm a research scientist at the Center for Transportation and Logistics. And I'm the director of the Sustainable Supply Chain Lab. My research revolves around Scope 3 emissions, sustainable sourcing, supplier engagement, and sustainable transportation.

- I am Tori Arnold, I'm the project manager of the Sustainable Supply Chain Lab, working with Sreedevi.

- Hi everyone, I'm Rachel Schwalbach with CH Robinson. I'm our Vice President of ESG. So our work kinda spans stakeholder engagement and then very specifically, our environmental work that we do internally, as well as with our shippers and carriers. And then somewhat separately, but tangential to this conversation, I'm proud to be the president of the CH Robinson Foundation.

- And I'm Brittany Brama, I'm the sustainability director on Rachel's global ESG team. And I have oversight of some of our sustainability implementation when it comes to customers, carriers and then what we do at Core Walls.

- And for the sustainability lab, could you all help set the scope for why corporate sustainability is important, why it matters?

- With climate change becoming increasingly real and its impacts more devastating, companies have little choice but to take sustainability seriously, particularly with frequent floods, droughts, and other major weather-related events. Now, I have three main reasons as to why I'm saying this. First, climate change has already started causing severe disruptions to supply chains, making it difficult for firms to stay economically sustainable in the long run. So for example, in 2023, extreme rainfall and frequent- And flooding in throughout California and across the western states of the US, disrupted a lot of transportation networks, led to delayed shipments, and also disrupted the entire agricultural and manufacturing supply chain. Now these kinds of climate-related disruptions actually increased operational uncertainty, increase cost, and that is going to make firms difficult to be economically viable in the long run. And what's the second reason? Now there has been increasing pressure from both regulatory bodies and investors on firms to invest in sustainability. Now, firms that lag on sustainability actually risk regulatory penalties, face decreased access to capital, and declining investor confidence. The third reason is growing consumer expectations and rising demand for more environmentally sustainable products. So consumers are not only becoming more aware of the environment, they're also forcing firms to offer more sustainable product and services. Now, firms that ignore these rising consumer expectations would end up damaging their brand reputation and also lose out on the market share.

- Absolutely, and for the CH Robinson team, before I get into more sustainability questions for you all, could you give an overview, an introduction to what CH Robinson does?

- So CH Robinson is a global logistics provider, which means we work with our 83,000 shipper customers and 450,000 contract carriers to essentially solve tough supply chain problems. Many of our shipper customers are global across multiple modes including truckload, LTL, less-than-truckload, ocean, air customs, and many more to work with them to move their things around the world. And I know this is a supply chain podcast, but just in case one of our listeners has wandered in off the street and doesn't know the logistics industry well, I think it's important to note, especially for the discussion that we'll be having around sustainability, that CH Robinson is what we call asset light or non-asset owning. So we don't own these trucks or planes or ships, we don't employ the drivers that are moving these things around the world. Instead, when one of these shippers or customers comes and says, "Hey, I need help moving this stuff, we go out to that large network of carriers around the globe and leverage them to make sure we're moving that stuff around in the way that is most beneficial and best for the customer. We really do that through three things. One is our advanced freight technology including Lean AI. Our second is our operating model, which is a little more internal on how we stay focused and prioritize the right things. And then last and arguably the most important is our people, really just experts in the supply chain and logistics field and some of the best logisticians that are out there. So that's Robinson in a nutshell, and we'll get into a lot more of that as we go.

- And what made CH Robinson decide to work with the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab?

- I think as Rachel said, as industry leaders and one of the world's largest 3PLs, that's the third party logistics provider, we really understand that critical role that we play in advancing sustainability. And so choosing the right partners to turn the theory into impact is really important. We all know that collaboration just helps to drive the innovation and the practical solutions. And so I think that the fact that we share the commitment to advancing sustainable supply chains globally and opportunity to leverage each other's strengths really comes into play here. So I think that we're most excited about MIT bringing the academic depth and us bringing that real-world scale so we can accelerate those solutions together.

- And CH Robinson sponsored the 2025 State of Supply Chain Sustainability report, the lab's seminal annual report, as well as several of the early reports. Why is that report in particular important for CH Robinson's work?

- It's just our pleasure, truly. I think it's easy to call it the most obvious value, which is that it just brings that industry-wide insights, the pulse into the trends and challenges that people can rely on. 73% of organizations reported that there was no change in their overall corporate commitment to sustainability. And if we want to continue that momentum over the next few years, it's critical that the industry is using that same reliable source of information, so that when they build their individual playbooks, we're all talking about the same things. It's not about the data only. It informs our strategies for how we can help customers and really help them also meet sustainability goals, regulatory requirements, and just, you know, achieve those ambitions.

- And we love having CH Robinson be a long-term partner with us, that's for sure.

- Absolutely.

- And in terms of commitment to sustainability, companies can easily set out to prioritize profits above all else, and actually it can be profitable to invest in sustainability, but no less, why does CH Robinson choose to make sustainability a priority as opposed to other things?

- It is important to acknowledge that, yes, we are a for-profit publicly traded company, and just like all other companies that we're working with, profit certainly matters, and that's a critical important part of our work. But also, we don't necessarily see those at odds with each other, right? At the core of who CH Robinson is, we really, yes, making profit and doing really good business is critical, and it's also really critical that we're doing that in the right way and in the responsible way. So we're thinking about impacts to all of our stakeholders, our shareholders, our customers, our carriers, our own people, our communities, our planet. All of that is kinda embedded in what we call the Robinson Way and how we show up every day. And we also are really lucky that we have strong leadership support from the top. Our leaders know and believe that, as Brittany had mentioned, we are a leader in the logistics space and with that comes a responsibility to not only advance what we're doing for our customers, but also how we're working to advance the industry as a whole. And that goes back to some of the reasons for partnering with you all. It's also not in direct conflict with profits, and in fact, we're really thinking about it as long-driving, long-term value creation. And whenever we're thinking about sustainability, it's kind of in this risk and opportunity lens. So anything we're doing should either be mitigating risk or driving our ability to capitalize on some kind of opportunity. When we prioritize our work, we think about what's good for the business strategy and how does it align with that, and then what do our stakeholders ask for? And stakeholders absolutely are still asking about sustainability. That could be investors who are asking about this, it could be employees. Shippers is a really big one for us. And when we think about that risk opportunity lens, on the one hand that could be a risk we could lose out on opportunity for investment. There are times where with customers, you know, RFPs have included things on sustainability for many years. That's not a new thing, but the level at which they're asking for it and kinda what that commitment needs to look like is increasing pretty rapidly in past years. It's sometimes we're even having customers ask us to include it into contracts that we're signing. So the risk side is we might not even make it to the table to win business and even be able to have the conversation. On the flip side of that, we really see it as a competitive advantage. So many of our customers have either regulations that they need to be compliant with, or their own sustainability goals. And so if they can find a partner who can come to the table with innovative solutions, with accurate reporting tools, willing to partner, all of those things, that really is a competitive advantage for us. The one other thing I'll just note going back to this, profits versus sustainability, at the core, CH Robinson's business model really has always kind of been about sustainability. So for many, many years we've been about making resilient and efficient supply chains, reducing empty miles and doing all those things pretty naturally. So we may not have always called it sustainability. That's kinda at the core of what we're doing anyway. So it fits pretty naturally into who we are and how we work with our customers and carriers.

- Investing in efficiency as a means of being sustainable as well as driving profit is something that I'm sure will come up more later, but something that's very important for you all in all companies in this field. For the sustainability lab, what are some other reasons companies choose to prioritize sustainability of the ones that you work with?

- Yeah, it is very similar topics. You know, sustainability doesn't have to be a contention, like in contention with profit, and you can actually reduce your spend by making things more efficient, optimizing things to use less waste. So then you're using less materials. All of that kind of comes together to become more sustainable, and it's not just one thing that you are picking and choosing to do. There's a lot of different things across a whole organization that can have a widespread impact. One thing to note is sustainability is ever evolving. So something that is sustainable five years ago doesn't meet the same standards now. And I think with that just leads to more innovation. So more research comes out, or we're able to find a way to do something even better. Like, it just helps drive innovation within a company as well as globally.

- Yeah, another point for trying to be as ahead of the curve as much as possible, particularly as we see regulations becoming more strict in places like Europe in particular. Sustainability as a term can be elusive for some people. How does CH Robinson put sustainability into practice? What are some of your particular sustainability goals and practices that you could share?

- Yeah, Mackenzie, you just said something that really intrigued me is being ahead of the curve, and I think that's the most critical component. We don't treat sustainability as a project. How we build this into the way that we move goods every day. It's just part of our history and our legacy that we look at every part of the supply chain and we innovate and we get really creative. You know, if you want the effects of your efforts to be long-lasting, you have to look at integrating it thoroughly. And so for us, our goal is to ensure that not only that we are successful, but that our customers can achieve their sustainability ambitions and help the industry to continue to transform. And a few ways that we do that, one is for our customers, for helping them set goals or achieve a lower carbon footprint on things like the traditional optimized routing mode shifts and consolidated shipments and really building our technology around that, or using and we're leveraging AI and increasing productivity, using then our people and our talent to help overcome the hurdles and spend their time specifically to build strategy in that way. And on the carrier side, we had our recent internal survey for Newark American Trucking. And about 21% of those owner operators, they're already using some service sustainability tool, whether it's alternative fuel or some sort of equipment like these or hydrogen when they're moving freight. So really our goal is to create that runway for them to continue those efforts and grow their business and then connect them with the ShipWorks.

- And in a previous episode with the sustainability team, you all discussed how a commitment to sustainability can also drive innovation, which all of you have spoken to so far. How have you all found that to be true, and do you have examples of this?

- Oh, yeah, I agree with that. Innovation is huge and when people are committed to sustainability, their focus when they're not only looking at short-term wins but the long game, they can get creative, innovative, think outside the box. Those are the companies that can avoid that moment where their ambition outpaces the actions that they want to take. And, for example, you kind of mentioned this earlier, we're seeing a rise in the sustainability coalition. So in North America it's almost 36%, whereas Europe it's 42%. So it's starting to increase and really align. And those coalitions are so innovative and interesting because they have unique players at the same table that might not normally have been together. And those could be peers, competitors, non-profits, carriers themselves, but they all had that same mountain decline. And for us as an example, we're involved in a number of them on behalf of shippers and contract carriers. And so we're kind of the face and the voice for them. A lot of those are through the Smart Freight Center, so looking at things like drayage or ports, and it's just a really interesting catalyst for innovation.

- Yeah, and it brings to mind too just in all the episodes that I've hosted, especially when asking, "What are some recommendations that you have in the supply chain industry?" Everyone says, "Increase collaboration," you know, more or less. And that looks like what CH Robinson is really facilitating. I'm curious too for the sustainability lab if you all wanna add anything onto examples of how sustainability has driven innovation?

- Yeah, so when companies focus on sustainability, they also look at new business models. They look at more innovative product design that is sustainable end to end from cradle to cradle, right? So I think in a way when the companies invest in sustainability initiatives, they also end up being more innovative in terms of either the product design or their supply chain designers.

- In CH Robinson, in addition to partnering with the sustainability lab in particular, you've been a long-term partner of MIT CTO's supply Chain Exchange corporate partnership program. Can you talk about what made you all become and remain a partner in the program?

- I was just talking with someone about this partnership yesterday and we were trying to think about how long it actually has been. It's 15, 20 years. I think it's been so long that no one even knows at this point. It's just been such a big important partnership for us for a number of years. Probably a lot of the same themes that we've been talking about come up when we talk about why the exchange program has been so critical for us. But that innovation component, our commitment to continuous improvement, that is a huge piece of it. It's bringing those collaborations together, all the people that can come that are also practitioners. So being able to pair really interesting insights from our data and all the research that we're able to do with people who are on the ground making this happen. And when that comes together, those types of kind of real world solutions that we can discover is incredible. That new perspective, new information from not only the research side but the other people who are coming to the table that are a part of the exchange has been a thing for us. I think that's really similar to why we like to work with the sustainability lab and many of the other programs that you all have available.

- This episode of Supply Chain Frontiers is brought to you by the Supply Chain Exchange, MIT CTL's corporate partnership program. Partner companies receive exclusive access to cutting edge research, and executive education designed to drive innovation and results and supply chain management. Learn more at ctl.mit.edu. We've talked about the importance of corporate sustainability and some of its benefits, but I'm curious to dive into how you all have overcome sustainability challenges. When have you all found it most difficult to remain committed to sustainability or to prioritize sustainability over other things? And if you could speak to how you overcame those challenges.

- We all know all businesses are facing just incredible pace of change, especially today. And that is certainly true for the logistics industry, whether that's the freight environment we're in, looking at things like tariffs or socio or political environments. There's just a lot that impacts the shipping world and supply chain. It is a pretty just-in-time industry, we're doing a lot of things, things that need to happen today or tomorrow really quickly. And so that balance of sustainability, which tends to be a little bit longer term when we try to talk to people about 2030 and 2040 goals, at times that can feel in conflict with what we're trying to get done today. But when we go back to the reasons that we prioritize sustainability as a whole, those risk and opportunity lens, that's what really grounds us back into this. If we're able to just continue to ground in why is this good for either risk mitigation, that could be regulation components, we talked about reputational risk, all of those areas kinda on the risk side or what are the opportunities that can come from this, that really helps people get really clear vision on why are we doing this in the first place. Two other things that I'll highlight with that is one, just having that leadership commitment. Our CEO, Dave Bozeman, our Chief HR and ESG Officer, Angie Freeman and the rest of our leadership team understand this from both, again the right thing to do, the responsible company component, and why this drives business. So that is huge for being able to keep us on track when there might be other competing priorities we're talking with. And then I also reference Robinson's Lean operating model, and kind of that continuous improvement. And I don't need to geek out too much on that internal side, but it keeps us hyper-focused on the things that we know are most important to the company. And so when things start to come up and we start to get pulled into other areas, we can drive back to like what are our metrics, what are our scorecards saying, what do our stakeholders want and need? And if that's, you know, if we can stay grounded in what our customers are saying and our carriers are saying, it makes it a lot easier to kind of roll with those kind of waves and distractions that might come up.

- Safe to say, please do geek out. That's what we're here for.

- Yes, that's fair.

- For the sustainability lab, do you all have anything to add in terms of companies that you all have worked with, and having conversations with them about prioritizing sustainability over other things?

- So sustainability initiatives, like many other initiatives that a firm takes up, may not be successful the first time, and that's okay. What is important is for firms to realize that sooner and then, you know, try to regroup and work around to make it successful. Let me give you two generic examples. One is the case of Unilever. So Unilever a few years ago, they set an ambitious goal of completely doing away with their use of virgin plastic and they wanted to, you know, shift to fully recyclable packaging. But what they soon realized is particularly in the US market, that the recycling infrastructure and the consumer behavior wasn't able to keep up with that particular goal. So Unilever did not see that as a failure, but rather try to come up with more product and region specific solutions that help them align with their goals. Another example is Walmart Project Gigaton. Walmart had set this aggressive target of reducing their emissions by a certain percentage, you know, by 2030. And then, but what they realized is like a lot of their suppliers do not have the capability to measure their emissions. So Walmart did not see that as a failure, but rather they realize that they'll have to help their supplier with tools and training that will help them measure their emissions better. So the overall learning from this is, companies do not see that as a failure, but rather try to work around and align with their goals.

- So a lot of the sustainability work initially is uncovering what's going on in the first place?

- Definitely, and as we discussed on previous episodes, the importance of having visibility to the whole supply chain.

- Yeah, I mean, you're alluding to when we talked before, we're talking about, you know, scope three emissions, which is the emissions from your whole supply chain, not what your actually company is actively doing. But with that a lot of companies are setting goals for their Scope 3 emissions, and then as they start to measure them, they're realizing they can't actually meet their goals because what they thought they could do to reduce is not working or it's not the right fit, so they're having to reevaluate that. The key piece is, again, sustainability is a moving target, and as long as companies aren't instantly becoming discouraged and walking away, like, you can always evolve and change and then see how you can move to make it more sustainable.

- The sustainability lab just spoke to some examples of companies trying a sustainability initiative that didn't work as planned and then had to pivot. For the CH Robinson team, can you talk about a time when something the team tried didn't work out as you had planned, and you had to regroup and change the game plan and what did you learn from it?

- I actually love that concept of a moving target. Even earlier, we were saying that the perfect solution for right now might change in the next five years. Even CH Robinson, if you're looking at us as a company, we are fundamentally different than were two years ago. The framework is different than it was two years ago, four years ago. Thinking about this overall, like we learned early that sustainability isn't a one-size-fits-all and that's a notion that we really apply to the supply chain strategy for our customers too. Equally as important, sustainably doesn't happen in that vacuum. We really have to be poised for significant shifts in the landscape that rely on certain levers or tactics that feel just right. And I think a broad example that a lot of, you know, the listeners or our shippers are feeling right now is that the current political environment in the US has made a good case study for this, this change. We previously saw rigidity in like sustainability plans. People were bought in on one specific tactic, or they were all really focused on a certain area. And even though they voiced that previously that it was their number one priority, you know, that only works if, let's say, infrastructure exists and it's gonna be built right away. Or incentives that make the cost of reveal go its operation really attractive to contract carriers. And when those things change, right now we're seeing significant incentives from the stalled mandates. You're seeing that in California especially. Or changing economic conditions, you have to be ready for that perfect plan to get thrown out the window. And so adaptability is core of everything that you're gonna do. That's really what we've learned.

- Yeah, absolutely. And diving more into transportation specifically, what are some of the challenges that CH Robinson is facing in sustainable transportation?

- There's a couple that are probably common, many would relate to. One is just the global variation that happens, whether that is differences in regulations. You had mentioned, you know, there's Europe has one thing, then certain countries come out with, you know, a different version of that. So even just tracking and understanding how to respond to those regulations on a whole is something that all companies are thinking about. But that also that variance globally is there's also a difference in what kind of technology is available, what does infrastructure look like, what is actually available to make an impact varies pretty greatly, not only country by country, but even within regions in the US. It's just a complex marketplace. You have to be really agile, but even when you have multiple solutions, and that's putting that into different types of operations, usually there's multiple teams that you're working with that are gonna have to make different decisions on that, there's different budgets. So I think that that complexity and the global nature of the supply chain that we're working with paired with some of kind of the, the technologies available can make it a little bit more difficult for the actual implementation. That's part of why we're pretty big proponents of the book and claim model for reduction, especially in road transportation, which allows for us to help with some of the challenges around infrastructure problems that may happen. So if we have a lot of infrastructure in the west coast and certain parts of the country but a company really comes to us and says, "We're really excited to get EVs going in the southeast part of the country." Right now, the infrastructure doesn't quite exist there. But when we can implement something like a book and claim model, it allows them to not only get the credit but start to show that that interest on the shipper side without needing to build out a full EV solution in the southeast part of the country where it just doesn't exist today. We also know the Scope 3 data collection can be an issue. Transportation is a very fragmented market, especially for road transportation. So being able to go out and collect that data and accurate data from the suppliers you're working with can be hard, that was another thing that the report found like 66% of companies still tracking Scope 3 data and spreadsheets. And so when you look at the truckload market in the US, especially the number of carriers that are on the road, Robinson alone is working with, I don't know, 65,000 carriers. Many of them have like five trucks or less. And so their ability to track that information and get that directly to a shipper can be difficult. We are lucky, you know, there's challenges that come with being asset-light or non-asset owning, 'cause we don't get to go out and just say, "We're gonna invest directly in these trucks," or, "We're gonna directly invest in X, Y, Z technology or equipment." However, it does give us some really good flexibility to be able to work with those smaller carriers and combine that for the shippers who are not gonna go out and get that information from every single one of those, you know, smaller owner operator drivers that are out there.

- So vastly different regulations, different infrastructure, fragmentation, global supply chains, just a few challenges keep you all on your feet. As I imagine no two days the same.

- Makes it fun.

- For the sustainability lab, what are the wider trends in sustainable transportation that you're seeing from the research side? I'm sure a lot of what has already been spoken to.

- Definitely, so one thing is there was a report that was published, I think a little over a year ago that said, you know, if we flipped a switch and all transportation was on electric, we'd actually only reduce emissions by 30% because of the grid infrastructure and everything else that goes into it. The battery materials, everything. So one thing that we're actually interested in and we're partnering with the FreightLab, is a project focused on alternative fuels and what kind of different fuel options, whether that's biofuels, or hydrogen, or evaluating all the different fuel options to see what actually could have the lowest reduction in emissions. Because again, it might not be electric in the long run. Electric definitely works in short-haul vehicles and passenger vehicles, but when you talk about long-haul, there's a lot more challenges that go into that.

- Curious on the CH Robinson side, what kinds of alternative fuels are you primarily seeing your fleets using?

- Yeah, it's a blend, pun unintended, but very applicable here. Renewable diesel is of course a great drop in option, and so we're seeing folks gravitate towards that. I also see the growth of biodiesel significantly, especially in the Midwest, and where we have more agricultural incentive or some of those supportive coalitions that are trying to bring it to market. And I would certainly agree with the idea that biofuels have become probably the short-term win that folks are looking for. There really was a lot of interest in EV, and we're still invested into it. But in terms of what are we seeing happening, you know, the next three to five years, that's where the route is. And then long-term, that's where the EVs and hydrogen come into play.

- We've I think all been alluding to this concept of progress over perfection when it comes to sustainability. So having those solutions that are in the short-term, the medium-term and the long-term is really important. Alternative fuels are getting more of a spotlight today, and that's a good thing because it shows just the breadth of solutions that are out there.

- Yeah, that's a great point, 'cause you never want sustainability to feel like something that feels so unreachable that people are not moved to act. And so what are the things that people can implement?

- Yeah, having those like short-term options were kind of easy for step options is key, because, you know, for electric, or hydrogen, or whatever the long-term solution is, that's a full infrastructure change that needs to happen. And so that's not just, you know, a renewable diesel or biofuels. Like those are a little bit easier options to do in the upfront where it's not fully changing everything in the infrastructure.

- Right, and then what's within your control and what's not. 'Cause you're also looking at policy changes.

- Yeah.

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, it gets much bigger.

- And on previous episodes we've spoken to the importance of measuring Scope 3 emissions. What is CH Robinson's relationship to measuring Scope 3, its challenges, and how you're addressing it?

- This is a critical focus area for us and for our stakeholders, and the way that Robinson and Rachel specifically builds strategy is, what do our stakeholders need, what are their ambitions and how are we trying to help them overcome them? And she mentioned 66% of those companies are still doing spreadsheet work, which is mind boggling. And when they're trying to overcome that complexity and that inconsistency, that's where we suggest, "Hey, shippers or anyone else in this space, tap into your resources with your partners where they can help to close a gap." For example, with us, why wouldn't you use Lean on your logistics provider for transportation data, for critical data? We had that deep domain expertise. We also have, you know, 450 in-house engineers and data scientists. So it doesn't really make sense for someone to go it alone. And actually in Q1 we're going to be releasing an admissions dashboard. That's pretty exciting for us. And that platform is different because it's not just a place where you can go and see static metrics, it's in the same place that you would go to look at your freight information, your supply chain information. So you can also manage that while looking at your emissions and figuring out where are those focus areas, and how to move beyond just looking at that, you know, month over month or year over year. It's more about getting the actual insights and the analytical capabilities. So it's really important for us.

- I love that, and I think that's one thing that we are talking to different companies from the software side and hearing some of them are starting to implement emissions tracking throughout. So as you're kind of making those purchases, having all that information in one place, I think that's gonna be hugely helpful. As everyone is starting to have to track these emissions and report that information, we need an easy way to actually be able to carry that information all the way through.

- I was just gonna ask if you all from the lab side have suggestions for improved tracking systems?

- Yeah, first of all, companies should move away from spreadsheets.

- Sorry to Microsoft.

- Yeah, and the trend among European companies is a lot of them adopting custom-made carbon software or carbon tools. I think that helps them to track, not only their own emissions, but also their subtiers or multiple tiers of supplier's emissions. The only drawback out there is like, as of now these custom made tools are very costly. So a lot of companies try to make it in-house, but then smaller companies find it difficult to procure. So I think it's important for these tools to be made cheaper.

- Yeah, and also more widely available. When something's a custom tool that's, again, custom for your business that doesn't help it pass that information along down the supply chain.

- On the CH Robinson side, are you all making it in-house or how are you approaching it?

- The dashboard itself is just the typical dashboard tool, but when we're looking at the data, the metrics and all that, we're coming from the same place that others are. So we're looking at EcoTransIT, we have a great relationship with them. They're feeding us the data. A lot of it is real, live, and we're able to embed that into what we're sharing with our customers. And this is just part of what it means to work with Robinson. So they're getting this data at the same time as they're getting anything else. And that is at no cost to them. We really believe that their freight information is theirs. And so knowing what your emissions were for that movement, that's critical for you to even make decisions.

- I think Tori, you were making the point about the customized solutions, there's some issues that come with that. It sounds like it can be really helpful, but the piece that we wanna make sure people are understanding is whether it's a custom solution or you're working with Robinson, whatever that looks like, making sure it's aligned with some kind of global framework so that when people are able, when people are looking at your emissions and you're making decisions, it's kind of apples to apples comparison as opposed to, "Oh, we're calculating it this way in our custom tool," or, "We're working with this other partner who does it a different way." So the mo- Like that is one thing that we are always really committed to. And then the one other thing, I'll just emphasize that concept of having this information in the flow of work when you're making decisions about transportation. So that we've had an emissions reporting tool for a long time, but it was separate from everything else. And so now it's as I'm making decisions about transportation, I have all the data including spend, service, emissions, like all of those should be all together as you're having these conversations. And that's a big evolution we've seen from shippers too, is this is just part of the discussion that we're having about transportation, not a separate conversation that we're gonna have with our sustainability team.

- I imagine with being able to see real time emissions and having that play a role in decision making, and hopefully as that becomes a more widespread practice in the industry, that then incentivizes suppliers to lower their emissions and that's the overall hope. So looking ahead, we know that the future of sustainability depends on widespread buy-in. What advice do you all have for companies, and why they should commit themselves to sustainability and how they can make that happen?

- I think investing in sustainability is really a competitive advantage that compounds over time. The changes and trends that we're seeing right now when it comes to regulations, or technological advancement, or any of that, it's important to get started and start earning credit for it, because things aren't going to slow. We're still gonna see the compliance, we're gonna see, you know, consumer preferences, all of that will continue on for years to come. And so how we encourage folks to make it happen is you really need to get that starting block and making sure that you have the metrics that you need and the same data in front of you as your peers, your other key stakeholders. So you can use those same metrics to keep yourself accountable. And then in order to do that, leveraging technology and the partnerships, asking yourself who are your partners? Like CH Robinson or others, are there stones that you've left unturned in the past. From this report, 80% of businesses were surveyed to say that sustainability is important or extremely important to their long-term success. And that means that there are other people out there like you. There are gonna be vendors, or peers, or other groups that have that shared mindset and help de-risk a tactic that you might want to approach together. So set those goals, iterate, celebrate the progress along the way, but truly that the wait is over. We're all aiming for progress over perfection like Rachel mentioned, so just get started.

- What about you all on the sustainability lab side?

- Fully echo with what Brittany said, I have three main advices for companies. One is companies need to be clear about the why part of sustainability, right? For a lot of companies, sustainability is a side initiative or more of a compliance exercise. So as Rachel pointed out earlier, sustainability is about managing risk, building resilience, and staying competitive in a world where climate is changing, consumer preferences are changing, and regulations are changing, that's the first thing. The second thing is start somewhere, don't make it more aspirational, look at the progress. So companies need to make sustainability operational more than aspirational. What does it mean? It's important that companies integrate sustainability into their day-to-day business decision making and into different functions including procurement, logistics, new product development or whatever it is, right? And the third thing is, bring people along the journey. If your employees and your suppliers understand what is expected of them and then if you give them the right tools and the incentives to focus on sustainability, I think companies would be able to achieve their goals.

- It's an important point, 'cause you can't silo sustainability and expect it to make the impact that you're looking for.

- Definitely, which a lot of companies do.

- But not CH Robinson.

- Anything that I did not ask about that you all would like to speak to?

- I will just say one thing. Within sustainability there are ebbs and flows, and we know that right now there are some, whether it's economic or political headwinds that may feel like things are slowing, I think the reality that we're seeing here is companies remain committed to this. This is not the kind of work that you can turn off and on quickly, so that continued and progress is more important now than ever. Because this isn't gonna slow down. If companies are making shifts to that today, they may end up regretting that in the future as things turn again.

- That's a great point because as you all said, it changes so quickly that if you tap out for a certain period, it's much harder to get back in than if you stayed along. Thank you all so much for being on. So happy to have you. That wraps up this episode of Supply Chain Frontiers. A big thank you to Tori Arnold, Sreedevi Rajagopalan, Rachel Schwalbach, and Brittany Brama for sharing their expertise and insights into the current state of corporate sustainability. Supply Chain Frontiers is recorded on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our sound editors are Dave Lishansky and Danielle Simpson at David Benjamin Sound. And our audio engineer today is Kurt Schneider of MIT Audio Visual Services. Our producer is myself, Mackenzie Berry. Be sure to check out previous episodes of Supply Chain Frontiers at ctl.mit.edu/podcast, or search for us on your preferred podcast platform. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. I'm Mackenzie Berry, thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time on Supply Chain Frontiers.