Are supplier selection criteria going green? Case studies of companies in Brazil

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to verify if Brazilian companies are adopting environmental requirements in the supplier selection process. Further, this paper intends to analyze whether there is a relation between the level of environmental management maturity and the inclusion of environmental criteria in the companies' selection of suppliers.Design/methodology/approach - A review of mainstream literature on environmental management, traditional criteria in the supplier selection process and the incorporation of environmental requirements in this context. The empirical study's strategy is based on five Brazilian case studies with industrial companies. Face-to-face interviews and informal conversations are to be held, explanations made by e-mail with representatives from the purchasing, environmental management, logistics and other areas, and observation and the collection of company documents are also employed.Findings - Based on the cases, it is concluded that companies still use traditional criteria to select suppliers, such as quality and cost, and do not adopt environmental requirements in the supplier selection process in a uniform manner. Evidence found shows that the level of environmental management maturity influences the depth with which companies adopt environmental criteria when selecting suppliers. Thus, a company with more advanced environmental management adopts more formal procedures for selecting environmentally appropriate suppliers than others.Originality/value - This is the first known study to verify if Brazilian companies are adopting environmental requirements in the supplier selection process.

A simple and green analytical method for determination of glyphosate in commercial formulations and water by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Relating the Green-Schwarz and pure spinor formalisms for the superstring

Although it is not known how to covariantly quantize the Green-Schwarz (GS) superstring, there exists a semi-light-cone gauge choice in which the GS superstring can be quantized in a conformally invariant manner. In this paper, we prove that BRST quantization of the GS superstring in semi-light-cone gauge is equivalent to BRST quantization using the pure spinor formalism for the superstring © SISSA/ISAS 2005.

Assessment of business incubators green performance: A framework and its application to Brazilian cases

The lack of proposals to evaluate the greening of business incubators or even of elementary discussions about the relations between incubators and the environment becomes apparent when researching this topic in the most prestigious scientific sources. To address this gap, this article reviews the literature on green management and smaller enterprises, business incubator performance and the greening of business incubators. This conceptual big-picture was used to identify variables relevant to the construction of a framework for assessing business incubators green performance. This framework was applied to six business incubators in Brazil. The results show the appropriated applicability of this framework. Furthermore, the empirical research led to the formulation of environmental maturity levels in order to classify business incubators performance. This paper seeks to offer a starting point for discussion and a proposal regarding the role of business incubators in a more sustainable society. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Green supply chain management: Mapping the territory

The objective of this paper is to identify the main definitions, related practices and to point out future directions in green supply chain management (GSCM). After a literature review and systematisation of the published articles in this field, it was possible to identify: a) the main research objectives of analysed papers; b) the research methods adopted; c) the predominantly analysed industrial sectors; d) the GSCM practices considered by the researchers. Results are presented in each of these analytical perspectives. The main findings are: 1) there are various classifications, nomenclatures and types of GSCM practices, but the most commonly used by studies in GSCM are cleaner production, product design, reverse logistic and green purchasing; 2) from the highlighted definitions, the tonic is to adapt operating activities and incorporate the supply chain management philosophy (integration/ collaboration) to environmental concerns (impact reduction) in relations between links in the chain. These results can be useful for those interested in environmental management as well as supply chain management, considering the growing interest in GSCM. We also propose a research agenda on this subject. This is one of the most recent literature review and systematisation on green supply chain management. © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Analysing green supply chain management practices in Brazil's electrical/electronics industry using interpretive structural modelling

Industries need to adopt the environmental management concepts in the traditional supply chain management. The green supply chain management (GSCM) is an established concept to ensure environment-friendly activities in industry. This paper identifies the relationship of driving and dependence that exists between GSCM practices with regard to their adoption within Brazilian electrical/electronic industry with the help of interpretive structural modelling (ISM). From the results, we infer that cooperation with customers for eco-design practice is driving other practices, and this practice acts as a vital role among other practices. Commitment to GSCM from senior managers and cooperation with customers for cleaner production occupy the highest level. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Selecting green suppliers based on GSCM practices: Using fuzzy TOPSIS applied to a Brazilian electronics company

Due to an increased awareness and significant environmental pressures from various stakeholders, companies have begun to realize the significance of incorporating green practices into their daily activities. This paper proposes a framework using Fuzzy TOPSIS to select green suppliers for a Brazilian electronics company; our framework is built on the criteria of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. An empirical analysis is made, and the data are collected from a set of 12 available suppliers. We use a fuzzy TOPSIS approach to rank the suppliers, and the results of the proposed framework are compared with the ranks obtained by both the geometric mean and the graded mean methods of fuzzy TOPSIS methodology. Then a Spearman rank correlation coefficient is used to find the statistical difference between the ranks obtained by the three methods. Finally, a sensitivity analysis has been performed to examine the influence of the preferences given by the decision makers for the chosen GSCM practices on the selection of green suppliers. Results indicate that the four dominant criteria are Commitment of senior management to GSCM; Product designs that reduce, reuse, recycle, or reclaim materials, components, or energy; Compliance with legal environmental requirements and auditing programs; and Product designs that avoid or reduce toxic or hazardous material use. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lean and green? Evidências empíricas do setor automotivo brasileiro

The aim of this paper is to verify whether the practices of lean manufacturing are positively associated with the adoption of environmental management practices in Brazilian companies in the automotive sector to test the hypothesis that by being lean the business tends to become green. To this purpose, a framework associating these concepts with the research hypothesis was proposed. The data collected from 75 companies were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The main results show that lean manufacturing (LM) is positively associated with environmental management (EM), but the explanation power of LM over EM is considered weak/moderate. In fact, being lean also means being green, but other organizational variables not considered in this study may influence the greening of organizations.

Quality management, environmental management maturity, green supply chain practices and green performance of Brazilian companies with ISO 14001 certification: Direct and indirect effects

This study aims to test a new conceptual model based on the relationship between quality management (QM), environmental management maturity (EMM), adoption of external practices of green supply chain management (GSCM) (green purchasing and collaboration with customers) and green performance (GP) with data from 95 Brazilian firms with ISO 14001. To our knowledge, such links and relationships are not simultaneously identified and tested in the literature. The results indicate the validation of all of the research hypotheses. This paper highlights that an improvement in green performance will require attention to quality management, environmental management maturity, and green supply chain. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quality management, environmental management maturity, green supply chain practices and green performance of Brazilian companies with ISO 14001 certification: Direct and indirect effects (Reprint from vol 67C, pg 39-51)

This study aims to test a new conceptual model based on the relationship between quality management (QM), environmental management maturity (EMM), adoption of external practices of green supply chain management (GSCM) (green purchasing and collaboration with customers) and green performance (GP) with data from 95 Brazilian firms with ISO 14001. To our knowledge, such links and relationships are not simultaneously identified and tested in the literature. The results indicate the validation of all of the research hypotheses. This paper highlights that an improvement in green performance will require attention to quality management, environmental management maturity, and green supply chain.

Green training supporting eco-innovation in three Brazilian companies: practices and levels of integration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show results from the relationship between green/environmental training and the development of three projects of low-carbon eco-innovations in top Brazilian companies. Design/methodology/approach – This study includes three organizational projects for low-carbon eco-innovations in products (A, B and C) with the objective of reducing their impact on GHG emissions, the so-called low-carbon products. Data were collected from several sources of evidence, including in-depth interviews, document analyses and direct observations. Findings – The authors verified that the environmental training interface for mitigating climate change is relevant for the systematic development of low-carbon products in most of the cases studied. Originality/value – Low-carbon eco-innovations are a trend in the corporate world; however, there is not enough literature and practical evidence on this subject. Thus, this paper adds new evidence to the literature.

Green and competitive: empirical evidence from ISO 9001 certified Brazilian companies

There are many arguments in the literature on environmental management stating that companies that have a significant environmental performance tend to be more competitive, because environmental management tends to generate positive effects on their operational performance. Despite the fact that such arguments are widely accepted, there is little empirical evidence yet of such a relationship in manufacturing contexts that are rarely studied thus far, such as those of developing countries. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – With the objective of testing the positive relationship between environmental performance and operational performance, this research presents the data of a survey conducted with 75 ISO 9001-certified Brazilian companies. Such data were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. Findings – The paper discovered that, indeed, environmental management relates in a positive, significant manner and large effect to the operational performance of companies.