Building More Efficient, Resilient and Lower-Carbon Supply Chains

For global businesses, supply chain performance is increasingly defined by the ability to manage disruption, control costs and reduce emissions at the same time. These are not competing ambitious. The right logistics decisions can advance all three.

According to DP World's Global Trade Observatory (GTO) survey, 86% of Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) agree that access to alternative and multimodal trade routes is becoming a competitive advantage. The survey gathered insights from 103 CSCOs across 14 markets and nine industries.

This reflects a changing operating environment. Trade route instability and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty mean that businesses are reducing their dependence on single corridors.

Trade route instability and geopolitical uncertainty are prompting businesses to reduce dependence on single corridors. Near-shoring and friend-shoring are also reshaping trade flows. Supply chains built primarily for just-in time efficiency are increasingly being redesigned with just-in-case resilience in mind: more routing options, greater flexibility and the capacity to respond when conditions change.

That resilience need not mean accepting permanently higher costs or emissions. Network optimization, smarter freight allocation and multimodal transport can help businesses build redundancy where it matters while reducing avoidable movements and inefficiencies elsewhere.

Low Carbon Can Deliver Commercial Value

The other major shift is climate related. Freight and logistics account for approximately 10% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions, while evolving regulation and customer expectations are increasing scrutiny or supply chain impacts.

Yet lower-carbon logistics should not be viewed only as a compliance requirement or additional cost. Route optimization, load consolidation, appropriate modal shifts and more efficiency warehousing can reduce fuel use, improve asset utilization and strengthen operational performance alongside emissions reductions. The commercial case is strongest when sustainability is integrated into everyday supply chain decisions.

DP World’s GTO survey echoes this view, highlighting the growing importance of lower- carbon supply chains as drivers of business expansion. Globally, 38% of respondents identified lower-carbon supply chains as key to enabling growth over the next three years, up from 24% today. This shift is even more pronounced among large organisations, where the proportion rises sharply from 10% to 40% over the same period. 

These findings challenge the assumption that businesses must choose between resilience, cost efficiency and decarbonisation. A network that offers alternative routes can reduce exposure to disruption. A well-chosen modal shift can improve cost and carbon performance. Supply chain redesign can help businesses adapt to changing trade patterns without building unnecessary inefficiency into their operations.

From Individual Initiatives to Better Supply Chain Design

The next opportunity is to connect these decisions across the network. Transport mode, warehouse location, inventory strategy and supplier choices all influence cost, reliability and emissions. Optimising one element in isolation can simply shift costs or carbon impacts elsewhere.

For example, a route change may improve reliability but increase distance travelled; a different warehouse footprint may reduce delivery times while changing transport
demand. Evaluating the trade-offs together enables businesses to design supply chains around the outcomes that matter most: operational efficiency, resilience and lower emissions.

This is particularly important for Scope 3 emissions, which extend across suppliers, transport providers and logistics partners. Better visibility into these activities helps companies identify where operational changes can deliver meaningful emissions reductions.

How EcoRoute Creates Business Value

DP World’s EcoRoute helps customers build more efficient, resilient and lower-carbon supply chains. Through network optimisation, multimodal transport solutions, lower- carbon assets such as electric trucks and green warehousing, and the management of end- of-life product flows for high-value assets, EcoRoute helps customers reduce emissions while improving supply chain performance.

Emissions measurement and carbon insetting solutions enable this approach by providing visibility into supply chains impacts and supporting customers’ decarbonisation goals. The emphasis is on practical logistics solutions that deliver measurable operational and environmental value.

For example, a DP World customer in India faced rising logistics costs and heavy dependence on road freight in their transport network between Chennai and Kolkata.

In response, the company introduced coastal shipping as an additional mode.

Emissions fell by 78% per trip, while logistics costs were cut by between 8% and 12%. The results was more than an emissions improvement. Adding another transport option helped the customer manage costs and reduce reliance on a single mode, demonstrating how multimodal solutions can strengthen supply chain performance.

As the logistics industry seeks to turn its sustainability ambitions into measurable commercial and environmental outcomes, EcoRoute brings together the logistics capabilities and emissions visibility needed to help customer build supply chains that are more adaptable, more efficient and lower-carbon by design.

Download the whitepaper, Ending the Sustainable Supply Chain Trade-Off