Evaluating indicators of the agility of the green supply chain

Abstract

PurposeNowadays, the main problem of industries is the issue of environmental pollution. The green supply chain (GSC) is one of the processes that can be effective to consider this issue and its practices in all working processes in every organizations, so that the concept of GSC has been emerged with the acceleration of the government regulations and rules to achieve environmental standards and the increasing demands of consumers to supply green products. Therefore, the organizations should move toward the development of environmental activities in today’s turbulent world. In other words, the current organizations should consider making their supply chain more agile and green to survive in the competition arena or in other words, they should consider making agile the GSC. The necessity of considering this issue needs to identify the evaluating indicators of the agility of the GSC. This study aims to consider this issue.Design/methodology/approachWith reviewing the research literature and having survey with the experts, totally 7 criteria and 37 sub-criteria were identified as the evaluating indicators of the agility of the GSC. The results from collecting research data and using the confirmatory-factor analysis suggest the suitability of the above-mentioned indicators.FindingsThe idea of the GSC is to remove or minimize the greenhouse, chemical/hazardous gases and waste throughout the supply chain. On one hand, the agility of the supply chain as an operational capability in quick response to the uncertain and turbulent markers not only improves the performance of the company but also leads to cost decrease and increase of the professional capabilities. Therefore, the organizations should step toward the development of the environmental activities in the today’s turbulent world. The importance of the issue of agility and considering the environment in the supply chain double the necessity of identification of the factors of agility of the GSC.Originality/valueThe present research considers the identification of the evaluating indicators of the agility of the GSC in industries.