Abstract
Background: The cement industry in South Africa is lagging behind the green supply chain management (GSCM) revolution that has influenced many sectors to re-evaluate their supply chain systems.Objective: This study was conducted to determine the significant drivers of and barriers to the implementation of GSCM in the South African cement industry, and thus to investigate the impediments to the implementation of GSCM in the cement industry.Method: A mixed-method approach was used to collect data from various role-players in the cement value chain. Geometric means were calculated from the scores of the survey conducted. Interviews were also conducted to confirm the results of the survey. An analytical hierarchy process technique ranked the individual drivers and barriers using the results from pairwise comparisons conducted. After ranking the drivers and barriers, a Pareto analysis was applied to determine the most significant drivers and barriers for the South African cement industry.Results: Overall, the seven most significant sub-drivers fall into three categories of main drivers: financial performance, competitors and organisational style. Ten barriers were identified as most significant and were categorised into five themes, namely, high capital costs, poor supplier commitment, high certification costs, weak marketing positioning and lack of awareness of GSCM.Conclusion: The identification of these drivers and barriers contributes to further research on improvements to GSCM process in the cement industry. The study shows that drivers of and barriers to the implementation of GSCM are not universally standard, and the ranking varies from one industry to another and from one country to another.
Highlights
Green supply chain management (GSCM) involves integrating environmentally friendly practices into supply chain management (SCM) to respond to stakeholders’ demand for products and services that are produced through environmentally sustainable practices (Mvubu & Naude 2016)
This study identifies the drivers of and barriers to the implementation of GSCM in the South African cement industry and determines the relative weights of these barriers and drivers using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP)
Type of organisational culture supportive of green supply chain management This study identified a supportive culture of GSCM as a significant driver for the implementation of GSCM
Summary
Green supply chain management (GSCM) involves integrating environmentally friendly practices into supply chain management (SCM) to respond to stakeholders’ demand for products and services that are produced through environmentally sustainable practices (Mvubu & Naude 2016). Green supply chain management is attracting increasing interest in industry, research and SCM driven by the escalating environmental degradation, for example, diminishing raw material resources, high industrial emissions and the increase in waste dumps (Srivastava 2007). The higher energy and material consumption contribute to environmental issues and natural resources depletion problems (Seman et al 2012). South African economic growth is mainly backed by agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transport and the wholesale sectors (Statistics South Africa n.d.). These five sectors contribute close to two-thirds of economic growth (Statistics South Africa n.d.). The high-energy and resource-consuming nature of the five sectors implies that South African economic growth is associated with some negative environmental issues. The cement industry in South Africa is lagging behind the green supply chain management (GSCM) revolution that has influenced many sectors to re-evaluate their supply chain systems
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