I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a supply chain executive from one of the big Hollywood Studios about sustainability strategies in their industry. Yes, they got the memo that Wal-Mart is gearing up to demand environmental and social impact information on labels (a few years from now). And, of course they understand the benefits of slimming down packaging (30% weight reduction for DVD packaging already achieved). And, as for water or other resource implications in the production process for DVD's, that gets done upstream by replicators who burn and these discs in the first place.
Net: not much of a sustainability story here - or is there?
I asked about burn on demand capabilities along the lines of the Blockbuster video kiosks that NCR is making now. The answer is yes, that's just getting started. In terms of sustainability, each burn-on-demand DVD keeps about 1 pound of carbon out of the atmosphere. Benefits also naturally accrue in terms of inventory not held, shipments not paid for, and sales not missed. This business model is capable of delivering $20+ worth of consumer value at virtually zero environmental cost. The digital supply chain for DVDs offers hope that many supply chains might in time morph into hybridized physical/digital delivery systems in which the physical work (atoms) can be separated from the pure intellectual property work (electrons) to give us revenue growth on ever slimmer tangible platforms.
Of course, such an idea depends on a major overhaul of our physical infrastructure towards an increasingly localized final assembly stage at which the software is loaded before the consumer walks away. Although this is obvious for entertainment products it is possible to imagine how it translates to other industries. Take life sciences for instance, where diagnoses and conceivably even lab tests could be conducted remotely with patient (or sample) condition transmitted electronically to specialists for analysis. Maybe it can work in automobiles where options like GPS navigation or fuel optimzation technology could be enabled at the dealership or even at home via bluetooth connections. Is it possible for supermarkets to offer mix-on-site food, beverage or health and beauty products in reusable containers? Yes it is. Each of these ideas however, requires a whole bunch of new equipment and processes to get anywhere near viability.
The big idea is to realize that future generations will spend most of their disposable income and time consuming ideas, rather than commodities. If our supply chains are still oriented to the delivery of stuff by truckload we'll end up making less money and a bigger mess.

