Sustainable green supply chain management: trends and current practices

In recent years, environmental sustainability has stimulated enterprises worldwide to not only develop green and sustainable innovations but also to move toward green and sustainable supply chain management. This study integrated the ideas of green supply chain management (GSCM) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) to define sustainable green supply chain management (SGSCM). Previous studies on GSCM/SSCM have contributed to research and practice, but few have explored the antecedents and consequences of GSCM/SSCM simultaneously. To address this research gap, we linked ecological modernization (EM) theory with SGSCM and sustainability performance to build a comprehensive research model. A total of 300 valid questionnaires were collected from electrical and electronics firms in Taiwan. The empirical results demonstrated that awareness of and pressure to engage in EM significantly positively affected SGSCM. Moreover, SGSCM significantly positively influenced sustainability performance (i.e. environmental, economic, and social performance). These findings should convince enterprises to actively promote SGSCM.

Over the years, the global supply chain has evolved into a more extensive interconnected complex network with multiple suppliers, manufacturers, and customers. Since environmental issues have become a burning question in recent years, the focus has shifted to attaining sustainability in supply chain management. The green supply chain or sustainable network is a concept to reduce environmental impacts in the life cycle of a product. However, green supply chain management is often challenged with additional operating costs and difficulty monitoring the implications within the complex network system. Additionally, many stakeholders are unaware of the importance of sustainability analysis, which eventually complicates adopting green cultures in actual applications. Since green supply chain management deals with multiple aspects, such as cost and carbon emission, the multiobjective optimization method is widely used to evaluate supply chain performance. This paper intensively reviews the state-of-the-art literature on applying multiobjective optimization techniques in green supply chain management. The study highlights aspects of green supply chain structures, model formulation techniques considering multiple objectives simultaneously, and solution methods for multiobjective optimization problems. Finally, a conclusion is drawn with the scope of the potential research opportunities for integrating economic and environmental considerations in sustainable supply chain management practice.

The objective of this literature review is to identify the similarities and differences between the green supply chain management (GSCM) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) definitions and factors in the literature. In order to analyze the identifying definitions, two different groups of factors for sustainable development (i.e., environmental, economic, social factors) and Supply chain management (i.e., flow, stakeholder, relationship, value, coordination factors) were proposed. The presentation of these factors in the recognized definitions will be analyses and compare. The comparative analysis illustrates the similarities and differences between the two concepts. Therefore, definitions of GSCM focus on environmental, flow and stakeholder factors. However, the definitions of SSCM represent a focus on environmental, economic, social, flow and stakeholder factors. In the result, GSCM is the environmental dimension of SSCM, the flow and the stakeholder factors are common factors between the two approaches. SSCM is, thus, an extension of GSCM. The definitions presented addressed the entirety of the sustainable development and SCM factors that were proposed.

Sustainable Green Supply Chain and Logistics Management are crucial to reap environmental and economic wins in today’s complex and competitive global business environment. However, conventional optimization planning techniques can prove inadequate for green supply chain networks. This study proposes a sustainable green supply chain and logistics network that adopts a novel Adaptive Fuzzy Particle Swarm Optimization (AFPSO) method. This study presents a multi-objective mathematical model in combination with Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) and Multi-Adjacent Descent Traversal Algorithm (MADTA). AFPSO approach bases particle swarm optimization on fuzzy logic to improve efficiency in various conditions. Performance is assessed using parameters such as energy consumption, implementation cost, error values, and enabler applications. Performance assessment is carried out through MATLAB simulations, where the proposed AFPSO-MADTA is compared against Back-Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), the Traditional Particle Swarm Optimization Back-Propagation Neural Network (Traditional PSO-BPNN), and Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Back-Propagation Neural Network (IPSO-BPNN) methods. The results demonstrate that the proposed AFPSO-MADTA approach demonstrates greater energy efficiency, lower costs, higher accuracy, and better sustainability enabler stabilization than traditional optimization methodologies. These findings show the value of AFPSO-MADTA in achieving sustainable supply chain and logistics management. • A new AFPSO-MADTA framework was proposed to sustain green supply chains and logistics. • Implementing Fuzzy logic with Particle Swarm Optimization brought flexibility and better performance in the model. • The framework thus aids in boosting energy efficiency, costs, and sustainability of supply chain networks. • AFPSO-MADTA is better in decreasing the implementation cost and sustain the enablers than traditional approaches. • It presents a strong base for additional research in green logistics and supply chain management.

Innovative adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices has witnessed a great surge in the last couple of decades. Its positive impact on the individual, society, and environment advocates the organization's commitment to progressively work with all stakeholders. Efforts are accelerated for identifying and understanding the opportunities to support green practices. Global warming and climate change have warned that scarce natural resources are not forever GSCM practices help to mitigate these hazards and ideologically enhance sustainability. Stake holders are committed to reuse, reduce, redesign, and recycle products in support of waste reduction and sustainable environmental protection. The sustainable supply chain is integrating sustainable environmental progressions into processes like selecting suppliers who ensure green manufacturing, buying green raw material, designing, assembling, and distribution with reverse logistics. Current research discusses sustainable green supply chain concepts, present and future trends, and performances.

Evaluation of green and sustainable supply chain management using structural equation modelling: A systematic review of the state of the art literature and recommendations for future research

Sustainable (green) supply chain management has emerged as a proactive approach for improving environmental performance of processes and products in accordance with the requirements of environmental regulations. Study empirically investigates the construct of and the scale for evaluating sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices implementation among manufacturers. With data collected from Indian small and medium sized enterprises, measurement models of vendor and customer participation and implementation were tested and compared by ‘mean score’, ‘t’-test and ‘p’-test. The assessments presented are based on parts of the data and information collected through the execution of the competitive strategies and best practices benchmarking questionnaire from 60 small and 59 medium size enterprises. Study focuses on present scenario of participation of vendor and customer for sustainable supply chain practices of small and medium sized enterprises in India.

Today, one of the top priorities of an organization’s modern corporate strategy is to portray itself as socially responsible and environmentally sustainable. As a focal point of sustainability initiatives, green supply chain management has emerged as a key strategy that can provide competitive advantages with significant parallel gains for company profitability. In designing a green supply chain, the intent is the adoption of comprehensive and cross-business sustainability principles, from the product conception stage to the end-of-life stage. In this context, green initiatives relate to tangible and intangible corporate benefits. Sustainability reports from numerous companies reveal that greening their supply chains has helped reduce operating cost, thus boosting effectiveness and efficiency while increasing sustainability of the business. Green Supply Chain Management provides a strategic overview of sustainable supply chain management, shedding light on the theoretical background and key principles of the topic. Specifically, this book covers various thematic areas including benefits and impact of green supply chain management; enablers and barriers on supply chain operations; inbound and outbound logistics considerations; and production, packaging and reverse logistics under the notion of greening. The ultimate aim of this textbook is to highlight the challenges in the implementation of green supply chain management in modern companies and to provide a roadmap for decision-making in real-life cases. Combining chapter summaries and discussion questions, this book provides an accessible and student-friendly introduction to green supply change management and will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners in the fields of sustainable business and supply chain management.

Can gamification help green supply chain management firms achieve sustainable results in servitized ecosystem? An empirical investigation

PurposeThe main purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive review and critical insights of the application of fuzzy methods in modeling, assessing and understanding the various aspects of green and sustainable supply chains (SSCs).Design/methodology/approachThe present study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis of 252 research articles. This study employs various tools such as VOSviewer version 1.6.10, Publish or Perish, Mendeley and Excel that aid in descriptive analysis, bibliometric analysis and network visualization. These tools have been used for performing citation analysis, top authors' analysis, co-occurrence of keywords, cluster and content analysis.FindingsThe authors have divided the literature into seven application areas and discussed detailed insights. This study has observed that research in the social sustainability area, including various issues like health and safety, labor rights, discrimination, etc. is scarce. Integration of the Industry 4.0 technologies like blockchain, big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) with the sustainable and green supply chain (GSC) is a promising field for future research.Originality/valueThe authors' contribution primarily lies in providing the integrated framework which shows the changing trends in the use of fuzzy methods in the sustainability area classifying and consolidating green and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature in seven major areas where fuzzy methods are predominantly applied. These areas have been obtained after the analysis of clusters and content analysis of the literature presenting key insights from the past and developing the conceptual framework for future research studies.

In supply chain management, economical objectives have traditionally guided decisions of the supply chains. However, with increased global environmental and social concerns, in recent years, green aspects have been incorporated in supply chain decisions. These expansions lead to new research areas about green or sustainable supply chain management that includes applying various green practices in order to reduce negative impact on the environment or providing sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to develop a multi-objective optimization model for determining network design of the green supply chains. In multi-objective frame of the proposed model, total profit maximization and environmental impact minimization objectives are considered in order to obtain best network configuration for economic and environmental performance of the green chain. The proposed model is validated with numerical experiments. Obtained results showed that the model can be used as a strategic decision tool in problems with multi and conflicting objectives.
 Keywords: green supply chain management, multi-objective modelling, network optimization.

Abstract
 
 In supply chain management, economical objectives have traditionally guided decisions of the supply chains. However, with increased global environmental and social concerns, in recent years, green aspects have been incorporated in supply chain decisions. These expansions lead to new research areas about green or sustainable supply chain management that includes applying various green practices in order to reduce negative impact on the environment or providing sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to develop a multi-objective optimization model for determining network design of the green supply chains. In multi-objective frame of the proposed model, total profit maximization and environmental impact minimization objectives are considered in order to obtain best network configuration for economic and environmental performance of the green chain. The proposed model is validated with numerical experiments. Obtained results showed that the model can be used as a strategic decision tool in problems with multi and conflicting objectives.
 Keywords: green supply chain management, multi-objective modelling, network optimization.

In supply chain management, economical objectives have traditionally guided decisions of the supply chains. However, with increased global environmental and social concerns, in recent years, green aspects have been incorporated in supply chain decisions. These expansions lead to new research areas about green or sustainable supply chain management that includes applying various green practices in order to reduce negative impact on the environment or providing sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to develop a multi-objective optimization model for determining network design of the green supply chains. In multi-objective frame of the proposed model, total profit maximization and environmental impact minimization objectives are considered in order to obtain best network configuration for economic and environmental performance of the green chain. The proposed model is validated with numerical experiments. Obtained results showed that the model can be used as a strategic decision tool in problems with multi and conflicting objectives. Keywords: Green supply chain management, multi-objective modelling, network optimization;

This paper discusses the antecedences and consequences of supply chain transparency (SCT) in sustainable agrarian supply chain management using partial least squares regression in an empirical sample with 131 supply chains with lead firms in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). We investigated the effect of such structural antecedences as disintermediation, as well as the effect of governance tools similar to intensive communication, the integration of third parties in supply chain governance or the use of formal specifications on SCT. We found that all these antecedences are helpful in increasing SCT, while low developed countries of origin significantly reduced SCT. Then, the effects of SCT on the four main performance dimensions in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), i.e. social, ecological, and operational performance and long-term relationship success, were verified. Higher SCT improves all four dimensions significantly, while the effect on operational performance is lowest. Supply chain transparency turns out to be a prerequisite or a basic indicator of good management in SSCM in agri-food supply chains.

In recent years, the interdisciplinary research of supply chains and sustainability has received extensive, yet gradual, attention; when compared to the rapid economic growth of the service industry, however, sustainable supply chain management has not been systematically explored yet. It has not only great theoretical significance, but also positive practical significance to provide a framework for the operation of a sustainable service supply chain from a sustainable development point of view. Based on the triple bottom line (TBL), we have analyzed related sustainable supply chain management research between 2006 and 2015, reviewed papers involving two or three bottom lines as well, and then introduced some classical frameworks for manufacturing supply chain management and service supply chain management. Afterward, by analyzing the differences between the manufacturing and service industries, we propose a framework of sustainable service supply chain management (SSSCM). Based on the impacts of sustainable development TBL on service supply chain participants, we have finally made a framework for sustainable operation facing triads service supply chain and proposed a future research agenda.