Achieving supply chain environment management: an exploratory study

Abstract

The concept of collaborating with supply chain parties to improve manufacturing sustainability is referred to as Supply Chain Environmental Management (SCEM) or 'greening the supply chain'. The extant literature suggests the benefits of SCEM but offers no guidelines for its development and practice. Using case research that involved direct observation and systematic interviews with five manufacturers, this study examines how manufacturing firms involve various supply chain partners (e.g. suppliers, customers, peer organisations, government and community) in their environmental supply chain. The results indicate that a firm's environmental partnership should be aligned with its Environmental Management (EM) strategy. An SCEM framework is proposed for planning and monitoring the development of environmental partnership. Additional suggestions for achieving SCEM are made, followed by the presentation of several research propositions for future research.