The Development of Scales of Greenness in Transportation

[caption id="attachment_43929" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Modern Transportation Accounts for Large Portion of CO2 Problem--Time to Develop Scales of Greenness"][/caption]

Today, going green certainly makes good business sense for a typical business especially if it wants to improve its bottom line and develop overall good customer relations with the very individuals it serves.  As a result, we are entering an era where a company must demonstrate its commitment to green by showing not only through its words, but also through its actions in terms of how it stacks up on the "greenness scale."

The "greenness scale"  is one many transportation companies are developing to differentiate themselves from each other in order to better inform the public generally about issues such as their level of commitment to green.  In particular, such companies like Invesco PowerShares have created "its Global Processing Transportation ETF. The fund will track the Global Energy Efficient Transport Index, or HAUL."  As such, the question becomes one of how energy efficient is a particular transportation company based on this Transport Index.  Transportation here in the U.S. certainly is a major contributor to the carbon dioxide emissions problem.

Innovative companies from auto-manufacturers to others in the transportation industry should recognize this fact and follow companies like Invesco PowerShares who are developing a system for grading their energy efficiency practices.  This index developed by Invesco PowerShares is unique because of its emphasis on two themes: "the 'innovative companies that are just on the horizon with new technologies' that people would expect to see in the index and lower-tech transportation that is more efficient than regular gas guzzling.'"

Innovative transportation companies, therefore, like Invesco PowerShares are an example of a new company on the horizon, who recognize the market for going green.  Yet, as evidenced by the reference to "lower-tech transportation," it is clear that current companies that have been in business for a long time can improve their commitment to green by investing in these new technologies.  The transportation industry, therefore, has a chance both here in the U.S. and globally has a chance to follow Invesco PowerShares by seriously assessing current energy and environmental practices using a scale similar to the HAUL.  While HAUL is a scale that appears like it can be used by a variety of transportation companies, what is less clear is how to measure the practices of new innovative companies versus the lower-tech transportation companies, some of which may have been around for quite some time.

Therefore, it is essential for all transportation companies to develop a scale like HAUL when it comes to showing customers their commitment to going green.  HAUL may be useful for these innovative green companies, but it is less clear as to how the particular scale is useful for the so-called low-tech companies.  Perhaps, two different scales of greenness are necessary, but the HAUL is definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to assessing the overall energy efficiency practices of the transportation sector.