PRINT
EMAIL
COMMENT
BUZZ UP
DIGG
OUR PREMIUM CONTENT
The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter
The Kiplinger California Letter
Kiplinger's Biofuels Market Alert
Kiplinger's Retirement Report
SUBSCRIBER HELP
CURRENT LETTER
Facing the Recession :
How Bad Will It Be?
PREVIOUS ISSUES
GreenTips is a monthly Kiplinger Recommends feature from Greener World Media Inc., which writes environmental news and advice for business through a variety of Web-based outlets, including GreenBiz.com, GreenerComputing, ClimateBiz , GreenerBuildings and GreenBiz Radio.Leslie Guevarra is an associate editor at GreenBiz.com.
Cities have been warming up to the idea of "infill" -- using urban plots of vacant land, brownfields and old or even abandoned buildings for development rather than expanding ever deeper into the suburbs. Now, with the help of rising energy costs, the idea is advancing from multifamily housing and retail outlets to more industrial uses, especially distribution centers.
"Energy is such a huge percentage of the total distribution costs that our customers have largely stopped building large singular distribution centers and are re-evaluating their entire supply chain, so that they have the ability to carry more inventory in infill sites that are closer to their customers," says Steven Campbell, a senior vice president and director of environmental and development services for AMB Property Corp. in San Francisco. This month's GreenTips column is a GreenBiz Radio interview with Campbell that looks at how large and small businesses alike are moving away from huge but distant distribution centers to smaller urban ones that are closer to their customers.
Campbell estimates that every dollar increase in the cost of oil translates to a 1% increase in total distribution transportation costs. With oil hitting $150 a barrel not long ago and unlikely to dip much below $100 anytime soon, that's put pressure on companies to be creative about cutting costs for getting their goods to retailers. In response, AMB is bringing to the U.S. a practice popular in Japan and other densely populated parts of Asia but never heard of here: going vertical. Campbell says that, rather than relying upon huge, sprawling single-level transportation centers, urban infill centers can make efficient use of land with "four- to six-story buildings with circular truck ramps that allow full access for full-size, container-carrying trucks to every single floor. You end up with coverage ratios approaching 200% on the land parcel."
City officials and neighborhoods in areas near such projects may be skeptical of such projects, but Campbell says concerns about congestion, energy conservation, underdeveloped urban property and pollution can help ease those worries. "If you can move the trucks back in, so that they have a shorter haul to the point of consumption, then that's good for everybody. …We've spent a lot of time, as have others, working to re-educate the political and planning side in these communities."
E-Mail Article
Print Article
