GXS and Verizon Business Tackle the Next Green Frontier: Supply Chain Automation to Enable Eco-Friendly Trade

GAITHERSBURG, Md. and BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - As companies increasingly seek to become more efficient and environmentally friendly by automating their supply chains, GXS and Verizon Business are delivering business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions that can help these efforts. Supply chain management solutions offered jointly by GXS and Verizon Business enable businesses to securely and seamlessly convert manual, paper-based processes into automated electronic transactions among vendors, partners and customers, reducing the use of paper and making business transactions more efficient. Automating the supply chain to achieve green benefits will be discussed Thursday (Sept. 18) by the two companies at the Computerworld Green IT Symposium in National Harbor, Md., www.greenitsymposium.com.

Supply chain automation has many benefits including significantly reducing the need for paper-based transactions. Each electronic document sent via GXS Trading Grid®, the company's global B2B integration services platform powered by Verizon Business' Managed Network Services, represents a paper document that no longer has to be printed, enveloped or delivered. The process of making paper uses wood as well as energy, fresh water and chemicals. GXS processes more than four billion electronic transactions per year on behalf of its customers. Assuming one transaction represents two sheets of paper, the potential paper savings generated by companies currently using GXS' services equates to:

• 223 million pounds of CO2, the equivalent of taking 22,820 cars off the road for a year or reducing gasoline consumption by 42 million gallons each year.

• 132 thousand tons of wood, saving the equivalent of 912,000 trees.
• 1.5 trillion BTUs of total energy consumption, the equivalent of that consumed by 16,496 homes per year.
• 745 million gallons of water, the equivalent of filling 1129 swimming pools.¹

More important, however, is the potential for further environmental benefits if each of the estimated 40 billion B2B transactions undertaken worldwide² each year were automated. The environmental impact would be equivalent to saving: 

• 2.3 billion pounds of CO2, the equivalent of taking 206,672 cars off the road for a year or reducing gasoline consumption by 434 million gallons or 8.9 million barrels of oil.

• 1,386,667 tons of wood, the equivalent of 9.6 million trees.
• 15.3 million BTUs of total energy consumption, the equivalent of about 168,633 homes per year.
• 7.6 billion gallons of wastewater, the equivalent of about 11,553 swimming pools; and 911 million pounds of solid waste, the equivalent of about 32,548 garbage trucks.¹

"B2B e-commerce solutions can have a very powerful positive bottom-line impact for businesses and the environment," said Steve Kiefer, vice president of industry and product marketing at GXS. "There is a perception that environmental responsibility costs money. While that may be true in some cases, the benefits of supply chain automation include both cost-efficiency and energy-efficiency. In addition, social responsibility can increase corporate productivity, profits and public reputation."

Mike Marcellin, vice president of product marketing for Verizon Business, said, "Supply chain benchmarking is becoming a very real focus for multinational corporations wanting to understand their overall environmental impact. Verizon Supply Chain Managed Services are helping companies to work smarter and do business better and more securely across an extended enterprise of suppliers, partners, customers and employees, while also enabling them to reduce their carbon footprint."

Supply chain automation can also produce financial savings for customers as well as environmental impacts. According to Aberdeen Group³, for a company that processes 500,000 invoices per year, the cost to process a manual invoice can be reduced by 60 percent or more when automation is implemented.  Additionally, companies can realize even greater savings and reduced environmental impact by automating other supply chain documents such as purchase orders, payments and advanced ship notices.

In addition to working together to offer green-friendly services, GXS and Verizon Business each have taken significant steps to reduce their own energy consumption and carbon output.

By investing more than $150 million in its global data centers, GXS has been able to significantly reduce its own energy consumption and carbon output. For example, GXS recently upgraded its global data centers to include an energy-efficient blade-server architecture that reduces power consumption by at least 60 percent. Additional investments include a new clean-burning diesel generator for backup and fewer processors to reduce cooling costs.  GXS also recently joined the Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders Program in an effort to establish long-term emissions reduction goals.

Verizon Business next-generation network consumes considerably less energy than the older technologies it replaced. This state-of-the-art network uses bandwidth more efficiently, reduces network equipment and management costs, requires less electricity to operate and cool and enables employee productivity improvements. For more information about Verizon Business green initiatives, visit verizonbusiness.com/about/environment.

About GXS
GXS is a leading global provider of B2B e-commerce solutions that simplify and enhance business process integration and collaboration among trading partners. Organizations worldwide, including more than 70 percent of the Fortune 500, leverage the on-demand services on GXS Trading Grid® to extend supply chain networks, optimize product launches, automate warehouse receiving, manage electronic payments and gain supply chain visibility. GXS Managed Services, GXS' B2B outsourcing solution, empowers customers with the expertise, technical infrastructure and program support to conduct B2B e-commerce with trading partners globally. 

Based in Gaithersburg, Md., GXS has an extensive global network and has local offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. GXS can be found on the Web at www.gxs.com. 

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), operates the world's most connected public IP network and uses its industry-leading global-network capabilities to offer large-business and government customers an unmatched combination of security, reliability and speed. The company integrates advanced IP communications and information technology (IT) products and services to deliver leading enterprise solutions including managed services, security, mobility, collaboration and professional services. These solutions power innovation and enable the company's customers to do business better. For more information, visit www.verizonbusiness.com.

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¹ Environmental impact estimates were made by GXS using the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator. For more information, visit http://www.papercalculator.org. Additional gallons of gasoline calculations were made by GXS using the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator at http://www.epa.gov/solar/energy-resources/calculator.html.

² Based on GXS estimates.

³ Aberdeen Group, "E-Invoicing Solution Selection Report" by Lesley Keene and Jeff Pikulik, December 2005.

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