What were the top stories in the Green supply chain in 2013? Here is our list, in chronological order.

January:

California's cap and trade program for carbon emissions, the only one on the US, goes into effect, without it seems many hiccups or controversies. However, the costs relative to fuel don't kick in until 2015. Allowance prices have been falling as the year ended, as state regulators may increase the amount of free allocations they provide to companies in 2014, a practice commonly seen in Europe.

News buzz coming from reviews of the scheduled report from the he United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that claim the report will say impact of carbon emissions has been overstated. IPCC officials and others deny these reports. Truth later turns out to be somewhere in the middle (see below), as the politics of the report are thick.

February:

The Carbon Disclosure Project releases its annual supply chain report, based on surveys of the suppliers of more than 50 member companies, generally very large ones. Participation has certainly continued to grow. In the inaugural survey for 2009, 715 suppliers participated. In the 2013 report based on 2012 date, 2415 surveys were completed, a 30% increase over 2011 and up more than 200% since 2009. But the report finds that suppliers, not surprisingly, in general are not very advanced in carbon goals and programs.

March:

In its 2013 sustainability report, AP Moller-Maersk Group says that in 2012, its Maersk Line division (the world's largest container shipper) already reached its 2020 target of reducing CO2 emissions by 25% per container (TEU) from its benchmark 2007 levels - eight years ahead of time. To keep momentum, Maersk Line has raised the target to a 40% reduction in CO2 per container by 2020. However, most of the CO2 reduction came simply from so-called "slow steaming," in which ships travel at lower speeds.

Reports say that large US and Canadian rail carriers are aggressively testing natural gas engines that could replace diesel fuel, as the trucking industry has already been doing. But there are barriers, such as a nearly $1 million cost to retrofit existing locomotives, and major investments in fueling infrastructure.

April

Controversial article in UK's The Economist magazine that says researchers and computer models may have significantly exaggerated the level of "carbon sensitivity" - meaning how much warming will come from projected CO2 levels. This comes after global temperatures have been flat for some 16 years, contrary to most model projections. The article is noteworthy in part because the respected magazine had been solidly in the global warming camp for years.

May

Auto giant ford announced that the new Ford Fusion will be the first vehicle to be sold around the world to use recycled fabrics for its seats. The fabric of the 2013 Fusion hybrid are being made entirely of recycled materials. Ford hopes to keep the costs low by using Ford employees to collect some 2 million plastic bottles to serve as the feedstock for the production of recycled yarn.

At the WERC conference, VP of logistics and demand chain Cristi Clinger of 7-11 convenience stores says that in many cases her company is delivering goods on their trucks to competitor outlets. While there are some cost savings from the work, the big driver is sustainability.

June

Interesting story on the fact that as many Euro countries are facing growing mandates and goals for use of renewable energy sources, many are turning to wood pellets created from US forests - probably not the renewables officials had in mind. Together, six Southern states - Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia and Alabama - shipped 1.72 million tons of pellets in 2012, up from zero in 2007 and more than twice the volumes in 2011. It has brought economic life back to many mill towns that had seen their fortunes sag in recent decades.

Excellent annual Statistical Review of World Energy from BP finds world primary energy consumption grew by 1.8% in 2012, well below the 10-year average of 2.6%. Consumption in OECD countries (developed economies) fell by 1.2%, led by a decline of 2.8% in the US (the world's largest decline in volume). Non-OECD consumption grew by 4.2%, also below the 10-year average of 5.3%. But in volume terms, 90% of that consumption growth came from China and India alone. Meanwhile, coal continued to gain global energy market share, driven by growth in China - and Europe.

July

Shipping giant UPS giant upped the natural gas ante by announcing that all of the 700 Class 8 vehicles it has ordered for delivery late in 2013 and into 2014 will run on liquefied natural gas (LNG). The order follows five years and 300 million miles of successful experience with 2,700 trucks and package cars fueled by natural gas.

August

Chemicals, glass and paint company PPG says that "Green" products are helping to power its top and bottom lines. In 2012, the company's sales of green products were $3.05 billion, approximately 20% of total revenue, as it moves towards a goal of 30% of product sales by 2020. PPG has a number of attributes for what defines an environmental product, and includes products that reduce a customer's energy consumption, reduce the amount of resources required in manufacturing, or provide an extended life product.

September

The annual report from UN Global Compact, another environmental organization, finds that progress on sustainability is somewhat flat lining. "CEOs and board members are making meaningful commitments to sustainability progress at high percentages. From there, there's a drop-off, sometimes fairly steep, in the number of companies that are following through with actions to implement, measure and communicate sustainability," the report says. Within the supply chain domain, "While a majority of companies have established sustainability expectations for their suppliers, they are not tracking compliance or helping suppliers reach the desired goals," according to the report.

October

Executive summary of the UN IPCC report is released, causing strident commentary on all sides of the debate relative to global warming. This is the fifth such report, and first since 2007. The bottom line: the IPCC is more certain now than before that temperatures are rising and that man-made forces are responsible for a significant share of those increases. That said, the IPCC did scale back predictions for future temperature increases marginally.

Lowes announces that it will now convert all of its nearly 70 trucks at its Mount Vernon, TX distribution center over the next couple of years to natural gas.. The move represents one of the first moves by a retailer or manufacturer to make a complete move to natural gas trucks at a distribution center, although a few 3PLs have done so. The conversion will be managed by Lowes' dedicated carrier there, NFI. It is believed NFI received a multi-year commitment from Lowes in order to support the cost of the conversion, while Clean Energy Fuels will construct a nearby fueling station.

November

Little meaningful action at the UN climate summit in Warsaw, Poland, an event for which media coverage has dropped substantially in recent years. But there were plenty of fireworks nonetheless, mostly relative to money over future commitments for developed economies to send big bucks to less developed ones to help them cope with climate change and/or jump straight to green energy sources. Sure, that's what they'll use the money for. Developing countries want money right now too. Some developing nations are also seeking to create a UN body charged with compensating countries for environmental damage and which would assign "historical responsibility" to individual nations for climate damage stemming from CO2 emissions now and in the past. Watch out.

New UN Prime Minister keeps election pledge by introducing legislation to kill unpopular carbon tax implemented less than two years earlier. Law has not yet been passed.

Japan announces that it is dramatically pulling back from its previous carbon emissions goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 25% from 2005 levels by 2020. Now, Japan said, the goal for reduction is just 3.8%. The reason? The country's decision to shut down its wide network of nuclear power plants after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that wrecked the Fukushima reactors northeast of Tokyo.

December

A new report from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) says a growing number of companies headquartered or having major operations in the US are in one form or another now putting an internal price on carbon emissions, though many of the critical details remain fuzzy. CDP cites 29 major companies which say they have an internal carbon price of some kind, firms ranging from major utilities to Walmart, Jabil, GE and many more. However, the prices and practices vary dramatically.

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