An empirical study of green supply chain management practices amongst UK manufacturers

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent and nature of greening the supply chain (SC) in the UK manufacturing sector; and the factors that influence the breadth and depth of this activity.

Design/methodology/approach: Based on the findings from a sample of manufacturing organisations drawn from the membership of The Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply. Data are collected using a questionnaire, piloted and pre-tested before distribution with responses from 60 manufacturing companies.

Findings: On average manufacturers perceive the greatest pressure to improve environmental performance through legislation and internal drivers (IDs). The least influential pressures are related to societal drivers and SC pressures from individual customers. Green supply chain management (GSCM) practices amongst this “average” group of UK manufacturing organisations are focusing on internal, higher risk, descriptive activities, rather than proactive, external engagement processes. Environmental attitude (EA) is a key predictor of GSCM activity and those organisations that have a progressive attitude are also operationally very active. EA shows some relationship to legislative drivers but other factors are also influential. Operational activity may also be moderated by organisational contingencies such as risk, size, and nationality.

Research limitations/implications: The main limitation to this paper is the relatively small manufacturing sample.

Practical implications: This paper presents a series of constructs that identify GSCM operational activities companies to benchmark themselves against. It suggests which factors are driving these operational changes and how industry contingencies may be influential.

Originality/value: This paper explores what is driving environmental behaviour amongst an “average” sample of manufacturers, what specific management practices take place and the relationships between them.

Keywords: Manufacturing industries, Environmental management, Supply chain management, Sustainable development, United Kingdom
Paper type: Research paper

Developing green supply chain management taxonomy-based decision support system

The aim of this paper is to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and develop a structural equation modelling-driven decision support system following GSCM taxonomy for managers to provide better understanding of the complex relationship between the external and internal factors and GSCM operational practices. Typology and/or taxonomy play a key role in the development of social science theories. The current taxonomies focus on a single or limited component of the supply chain. Furthermore, they have not been tested using different sample compositions and contexts, yet replication is a prerequisite for developing robust concepts and theories. In this paper, we empirically replicate one such taxonomy extending the original study by (a) developing broad (containing the key components of supply chain) taxonomy; (b) broadening the sample by including a wider range of sectors and organisational size; and (c) broadening the geographic scope of the previous studies. Moreover, we include both objective measures and subjective attitudinal measurements. We use a robust two-stage cluster analysis to develop our GSCM taxonomy. The main finding validates the taxonomy previously proposed and identifies size, attitude and level of environmental risk and impact as key mediators between internal drivers, external drivers and GSCM operational practices.

Green supply chain management in local and multinational high-tech companies located in Brazil

The objective of this article is to analyse how green supply chain management (GSCM) practices are being adopted by some high-tech companies located in Brazil. The research was conducted using the case study approach, focusing on eight companies that are representative of this sector. The main results are: (a) the most adopted GSCM practices in the studied high-tech companies located in Brazil are internal environmental management, investment recovery and reverse logistics and (b) Brazilian environmental legislation and international policies are very important in driving the adoption of GSCM practices. The internationalisation of companies was also found to be a variable that interferes with the adoption of GSCM practices. This is one of the first studies that examine the relationship between GSCM and the internationalisation of companies located in Brazil. © 2013 Springer-Verlag London.

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.

Adoção de práticas de Green Supply Chain Management: mecanismos de indução e a importância das empresas focais

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Análise da influência da adoção de práticas de Green Supply Chain Management no desempenho ambiental e operacional: estudo de caso

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Fatores críticos de sucesso à adoção de práticas de green supply chain management: estudo de casos no setor de baterias automotivas

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

Mixed methodology to analyze the relationship between maturity of environmental management and the adoption of green supply chain management in Brazil

The aim of this research is to verify the relationship between the maturity levels of environmental management and the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices by electro-electronic companies in Brazil. In this work a two-phase research was conducted, with one quantitative and the other qualitative. The quantitative phase aimed to test whether a relationship between the maturity levels of environmental management and GSCM exists, while the qualitative phase tried to detail the characteristics of this relationship. The quantitative phase was conducted through a survey with 100 Brazilian electro-electronic companies and the collected data were processed using Structural Equation Modeling. For the qualitative phase, a multiple case study was conducted with three companies located in Brazil. The results indicate that: (1) The main hypothesis was confirmed and considered statistically valid, indicating that, indeed, the maturity level of environmental management influences the adoption of GSCM practices; (2) a coevolution tends to occur between the environmental maturity and the GSCM practices; that is, the more developed is the company's environmental management, more complex GSCM practices are adopted; and (3) the GSCM internal practices tend to present a greater relative adoption than the external practices; these external practices of GSCM tend to be adopted when the company is inserted in a higher environmental stage and/or operates under a scenario of stronger normative environmental pressure. By the way, this is the first research mixing survey and case studies on GSCM in Brazil. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Oportunidades e desafios para lidar com as barreiras à adoção de práticas de green supply chain management: guidelines à luz de um estudo de múltiplos casos no Brasil

This article aims to discuss how leading companies of the automotive battery industry installed in Brazil are dealing with barriers to the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. From these discussions, we list the opportunities and challenges to the automotive battery sector in incorporating GSCM actions. We conducted a multiple-case study with the top five companies in this sector. The highlight factors are “organizational values” and “human resources” for internal barriers, and “suppliers” and “consumers” for external barriers.

Understanding the genesis of green supply chain management: lessons from leading Brazilian companies

This work discusses the internal structuring processes of leading companies when adopting green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. A multiple case study approach was adopted as the research methodology, with four large Brazilian companies that are leaders in their market segments. The introduction of green products is a key step towards initiating concern for the environment among suppliers and customers. This study's results show the importance of having green teams, a dedicated functional area, and/or green jobs that support the discussion of environmental management among a business and beyond. The practical results of this study offer new insights into the behavior of companies that are adopting GSCM practices, thereby generating new evidence for the extension of GSCM theory. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Green supply chain management and environmental performance of firms in the bioenergy sector in Brazil: an exploratory survey

To achieve sustainable development, supply chains must become greener. In this context, the importance of green supply chain management (GSCM) increases because it can contribute to improving firms'environmental performance (EP). However, little is known about these subjects in the context of firms in the bioenergy sector (sugarcane and ethanol production in Brazil). Thus, the objective of this work is to present the results of a survey conducted on 80 micro-, small-, and medium-sized firms that are suppliers in the Brazilian bioenergy sector (sugarcane and ethanol production). These results indicate that GSCM practices strengthen the EP of firms in the sector. Therefore, this article contributes to the existing literature because it addresses the relationship between GSCM and EP in an understudied sector (sugarcane and ethanol production). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

O papel dos stakeholders na adoção de práticas de green supply chain management: estudo de caso em uma cadeia de suprimentos do setor de baterias automotivas

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

Evidências da relação entre evolução da gestão ambiental e a adoção de práticas de Green Supply Chain Management no setor eletroeletrônico brasileiro

The objective of this research is to examine if the environmental management evolution is positively related towards the adoption of green supply chain management practices (GSCM) by companies in the electronics sector in Brazil. To reach this objective, a quantitative research was conducted by survey with 100 companies in the electronics sector in Brazil. The collected data were processed using descriptive statistics, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The most important results are: in the sample, GSCM practices to the recovery of investment, as the resale of scrap and other waste materials, and the adequacy with legislation and auditing, obtained high scores; and research hypothesis (H1) was confirmed and considered statistically valid, indicating that, in fact, the evolution of environmental management influences the adoption of GSCM practices.

Green supply chain management em uma indústria de bens do consumo do Vale do Paraíba - SP

The Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) is gaining prominence in the academy and business, as an approach that aims to promote economic and environmental gains. The GSCM is operated through the Environmental Management System Tools and treated as an Environmental Management System (EMS), involving Reverse Logistics, Green Purchasing, Green Sourcing, Green Design, Green Packaging, Green Operation, Green Manufacturing, Green Innovation and Customer Awareness. The objective of this study is to map the GSCM tools and identify their practice in a consumer goods industry in the Vale do Paraiba. The approach and data collection were made in the company's database chosen as the object of study, as well as through on site visits and interviews. The results showed that the tools Green Operation, Green Manufacturing, Green Innovation and Green Sourcing are applied in the company and just Costumer Awareness tool showed no practice at all. To other tools was identified ideology or interest of the company in applying them