Nearly 6 percent of greenhouse gases generated by humans are due to the flow of products to consumers. David Simchi-Levi, a professor in Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT)  Engineering Systems Division and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, suggests that corporations could significantly lower these emissions by systematically analyzing their supply-chain logistics. Not enough companies analyze their emissions data in a thorough way, he says.

“This is a big problem,” says Simchi-Levi. “If you just do back-of-the-envelope calculations about logistics, supply chains, and emissions, you can arrive at misleading conclusions.”

In his new book, Operations Rules (MIT Press, 2010), Simchi-Levi outlines a variety of ways companies can improve their logistics—in particular, by using data and analytics to reduce the effect of supply chains on the environment. Consider “food miles,” the distance a food product travels to market, a common statistic aimed at measuring sustainability that is sometimes useful, but sometimes deceptive as well, asserts Simchi-Levi.

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