On Monday, the Atlanta Tradeport Training Center hosted a unique event aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses improve their environmental performance and efficiency. As part of the Department of Commerce’s Sustainable Manufacturing American Regional Tours (SMARTs), the program provides a great opportunity for businesses to learn how they can implement environmentally-smart practices that deliver improvements both internally and throughout their supply chains. And that’s where I come in.

I lead the sustainability solutions group at UPS and we help customers of all sizes “green” their supply chains. Some of those customer solutions include carbon impact analysis and measurement, transportation and logistics network redesign to minimize environmental impact, carbon neutral shipping, and “green” packaging.

Joining me on a panel at SMART was PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services, a Georgia-based company that provides fulfillment services backed by guaranteed service levels that average above 99.99 percent for both fulfillment and inventory accuracy.  PBD uses UPS Paperless Invoice when processing international shipments and as a result saves more than 450,000 sheets of paper while eliminating the use 150 toner cartridges every year.

UPS Paperless Invoice is just one of the solutions UPS provides to help customers like PBD make greener choices. But before you can help others go green, you really need to have your own house in order. To learn more about how UPS is making greener choices, check out our corporate sustainability efforts at responsibility.ups.com.