6 Unbelievable Ways Mobile Location Data Builds a Sustainable Future

Sustainability is one of the hottest topics of the year and although it's top of mind for many, few are taking necessary steps to ensure they are actually building towards sustainability.

The EPA defines sustainable manufacturing as developing a manufacturing process that has as little environmental impact as possible. Operating responsibly and as sustainably as possible is key to being a good company, so it's only natural that businesses both big and small are getting in on it. And while many are doing good for the world, they might also be overlooking a key part of sustainability: Location.

With how heavily businesses and business practices depend on location, it needs to be a consideration when thinking of ways to operate more sustainably. That's where mobile location data comes in. Let's take a look at six unbelievable ways mobile location data can help build a sustainable future that you might have never considered before.

1. Route Planning

Unnecessary driving is a great way to blast extra CO2 into the air, so finding ways to reduce emissions and make it to your destination more quickly is always a plus. Location data can help with this by collecting information on previous routes and formulating the most optimal for the situation. This way, you and your people are driving less and getting where you need to go that much quicker.

2. Supply Chain Tracking

Habitat destruction is a major concern in many parts of the world, a contributor being certain industries' willingness to "cut corners" and start developing where they're not supposed to. By utilizing location data, a company can track where the people along the supply chain get their materials. This way, you'll know immediately if someone is developing or taking things from land that's protected or simply not theirs.

3. Sustainable Sourcing

Knowing where the materials you need for your business are located is helpful in a variety of ways. In this case, using location data to more effectively source raw materials can be beneficial in reducing waste, lowering costs, and lessening your impact on the environment. As a simple example, you might use the data collected about your area to make a decision on moving where you source water after finding there's an aquifer closer to the rest of your business. This also provides a verifiable way to get products certified based on their origin or how they're produced, like when you use location data to prove a shipment of greens came from a farm that raised them organically.

4. Real-Time Adjustments

Upgrading to the modern era comes with a whole host of benefits, including being able to better use data. Tracking location data effectively frequently means getting updates in real-time. By making good use of this data, you can avoid delays as they happen, making for more efficient operations that have less of an environmental impact in both the short and long term.

5. Tracking Your Carbon Footprint

By utilizing the location data collected throughout your whole supply chain, you can get a better idea of what your operation's carbon footprint is as it exists right now. With that information, you can more effectively find places to optimize performance as well as plan out how to offset your carbon in other ways.

6. Better Fault Prevention

In the event that a faulty or otherwise bad set of materials or products gets sent out from one of your facilities, utilizing location data and tracking that shipment will help a lot in preventing problems like this in the future. Not only can you easily track the shipment back to its point of origin, but you can examine where things went wrong and how many quality control barriers they managed to clear before someone found the fault. Faulty goods mean wasted resources, so minimizing the chance you'll ship something that can't be used means less waste all around.