Green Sourcing Research Articles

Green Sourcing: Supplier Assessment and Selection Practices across Industries

Background: Over the last years, the assessment and selection of suppliers, based on the environmental performance of their products/services and their operations, has reached paramount importance and attracted the interest of many researchers and practitioners. Based on the prevailing perspective of supplier selection as a purely decision-making problem, this interest has been channeled towards the development of decision-support methods and tools. Other broader issues, such as whether there are converging or diverging green supplier evaluation and selection organizational processes across industries has not been addressed. Methods: Here, for the first time, we address this question by adopting a systems perspective and by considering green supplier evaluation and selection as an organizational sub-process of the broader sourcing process. We use activity theory to represent green supplier evaluation and selection as two interconnected activities, each comprising a set of organizational practices. Based on this representation, we developed a research instrument to carry out empirical research in a sample of 80 companies from five industries (pharmaceuticals, food processing, aquaculture, construction materials, waste management and recycling) in Greece. Results: The results of the survey suggest that green supplier evaluation and selection practices do not fully converge, but there are differences across industries. Conclusions: The cultural and historical context of industries influences the adoption of specific environmental supplier evaluation and selection practices.

Examining the green sourcing behavior from the cross-national perspective

Examining the green sourcing behavior from the cross-national perspective

Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Its Impact On Corporate Performance

This paper investigates the impact of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices on corporate performance. Focusing on multinational corporations, the study assesses the effectiveness of green sourcing, waste reduction, and ethical labor practices in enhancing operational efficiency and reputation. Findings suggest that adopting SSCM practices not only improves environmental outcomes but also leads to increased profitability and customer loyalty.

The Challenges Faced by Manufacturing Companies in Implementation of Green Supply Chain: Evidence from the Bakhresa Food Products Limited in Dar es Salaam – Tanzania

Northwistanding the role played by manufacturing companies in implementation of green supply chain, it seems that, this role has not been fully practiced by manufacturing companies in ensuring green supply chain. Taking Bakhresa Food Product LTD as a case study. This paper is intended to get a better understanding of the challenges faced by manufacturing companies in understanding green supply chain and recommending strategies for improving this role. Based on the qualitative appraoch and a purposive sample of 60 respondents, data were collected using in-depth interview, focus group discussion, indirect observation and analysis of secondary data. Data were analysed based on the thematic analysis strategy through the aid of MAXQDA 10 software. Findings of the study revealed that, manufacturing companies faced a number of challenges towards implementing green supply chain. At the green sourcing and purchasing level, the company was confronted with lack of sustainable practices in the organization vision and mission, poor commitment by top management to source environmental friendly materials and high operational costs. Moroever, challenges related to green manufacturing were lack of knowledge by the staff on environmental practices and impacts as well as lack of demand for green manufactured products due to their expensive nature. Challenges related to green transportation and distribution included irregular transportation by the vehicles, poor maintenance of the vehicles and poor infrastructures. Finally, challenges related to green disposal and reverse logistics were lack of information sharing between the firms and suppliers, inadequate legal enforcement by the government specifically to protect environment, shortage of equipment, lack of knowledge of the workers about disposal processess and also manufacturing companies failure to control customers after selling the products. Hence, to improve this situation, we recommend that; to improve green sourcing, use of modernized machines and provision of relevant traing. For the green transportation, manufacturing companies are required to conduct maintanance fot motor vehicles, making consolidation of materials so as to reduce number of trips per day. Finally, to improve green disposal, manufacturing companies are required to establish the program of waste collection from the residential areas as well as purchasing disposal equipment so as to avoid costs of outsourcing

Green Sourcing: Effects on Supplier Performance Metrics in Fast Food Restaurants in Frontier Markets

Abstract Purpose: Following the banning of expanded polystyrene packaging material, the fast food restaurant industry was serendipitously plunged into green sourcing initiatives for its packaging materials leading to heightened efforts on evaluating the suitability of various suppliers of green packaging material. This study therefore sought to assess the performance of selected suppliers on supplier performance metrics of total cost of ownership, quality of sourced material and delivery performance, in Zimbabwe’s restaurant industry. Methodology: Data was collected from senior procurement officers of 30 officially registered fast food restaurants in Zimbabwe. Each restaurant randomly selected 5 suppliers from their supplier lists. Each unit was asked to rate their 5 major suppliers of packaging material leading to an effective sample size of 150 suppliers. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyse data in AMOS. The five steps in SEM, that is: model specification, model identification, parameter estimation, model evaluation and modification were done. Findings: The findings in this study revealed that green sourcing leads to improved procurement performance in terms of total cost of ownership, quality of the materials sourced, and delivery performance. Implications for theory and practice: It was therefore recommended that practically the restaurant industry should explore various options of green packaging material ranging from recyclable and reusable plastic, paper, aluminium and steel material. Originality and value: Although the study was done in a single market, there is dearth in literature on green sourcing in frontier markets, of which the study provides empirical evidence from the restaurant industry in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Green sourcing in the era of industry 4.0: towards green and digitalized competitive advantages

PurposeIn the last decade, sustainable sourcing decision has gained tremendous attention due to the increasing governmental restrictions and public attentiveness. This decision involves diverse sets of classical and environmental parameters, which are originated from a complex, ambiguous and inconsistent decision-making environment. Arguably, supply chain management is fronting the next industrial revolution, which is named industry 4.0, due to the fast advance of digitalization. Considering the latter's rapid growth, current supplier selection models are, or it will, inefficient to assign the level of priority of each supplier among a set of suppliers, and therefore, more advanced models merging “recipes” of sustainability and industry 4.0 ingenuities are required. Yet, no research work found towards a digitalized, along with sustainability's target, sourcing.Design/methodology/approachA new framework for green and digitalized sourcing is developed. Thereafter, a hybrid decision-making approach is developed that utilizes (1) fuzzy preference programming (FPP) to decide the importance of one supplier attribute over another and (2) multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA) to prioritize suppliers based on fuzzy performance rating. The proposed approach is implemented in consultation with the procurement department of a food processing company willing to develop a greener supply chain in the era of industry 4.0.FindingsThe proposed approach is capable to recognize the most important evaluation criteria, explain the ambiguity of experts' expressions and having better discrimination power to assess suppliers on operational efficiency and environmental and digitalization criteria, and henceforth enhances the quality of the sourcing process. Sensitivity analysis is performed to help managers for model approval. Moreover, this work presents the first attempt towards green and digitalized supplier selection. It paves the way towards further development in the modelling and optimization of sourcing in the era of industry 4.0.Originality/valueCompetitive supply chain management needs efficient purchasing and production activities since they represent its core, and this arises the necessity for a strategic adaptation and alignment with the requirement of industry 4.0. The latter implies alterations in the avenue firms operate and shape their activities and processes. In the context of supplier selection, this would involve the way supplier assessed and selected. This work is originally initiated based on a joint collaboration with a food company. A hybrid decision-making approach is proposed to evaluate and select suppliers considering operational efficiency, environmental criteria and digitalization initiatives towards digitalized and green supplier selection (DG-SS). To this end, supply chain management in the era of sustainability and digitalization are discussed.

Prioritising risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chains: Insights from selected organisational theories.

Recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has provided strong impetus to supply chain resilience research. In a volatile and uncertain business environment, resilience can be incorporated by developing and implementing effective risk mitigation strategies. In this research, risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chain have been prioritised by considering their efficacy to mitigate various risks. Twelve risks and thirteen mitigation strategies, identified through literature review and experts' opinion, are considered as decision criteria and alternatives respectively. Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (fuzzy TOPSIS) is implemented under a group decision making scenario for prioritising the strategies. Developing supply chain agility; multiple green sourcing and flexible capacities; adoption of green practices; building trust, coordination and collaboration; and alignment of economic incentives and revenue sharing are found to be dominant risk mitigation strategies for environmentally sustainable clothing supply chain. These strategies have been viewed through the lens of resource dependence, change management and transaction cost theories. Organisation desirous to build resilience in their supply chain can prioritise the risk mitigation strategies and adopt a portfolio of strategies based on the outcome of this research.

Application of gray DEMATEL-ANP in green-strategic sourcing

The study aims to identify and prioritize the criteria and sub-criteria dimensions essentials for green strategic sourcing. Data were taken from the experts working in the automobile industry. By applying the novel Grey-DEMATEL-ANP (GDANP) approach, we identified the technology and environmental management system as the key sub-criteria dimensions to be considered while selecting the supplier. Besides, we also found quality and delivery time as the important factors to be considered while selecting a supplier for green supply chain management (GSCM). To present the useful application of our findings, we conducted an empirical study by taking the automobile industry of an emerging market as the case. The major contribution of the study is the application of variant D-ANP in identifying the important dimensions of supplier selection.

Paradoxes in supplier’s uptake of GSCM practices: institutional drivers and buyer dependency

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of institutional drivers and buyer dependency on green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and performance of suppliers. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on institutional theory and resource dependence theory to construct a conceptual model than links institutional drivers, GSCM practices, buyer dependency and performance outcomes. The authors test the hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling applied to a sample of suppliers in the Australian manufacturing sector. Findings The results confirm that suppliers develop GSCM practices of green sourcing and eco-design to enhance their performance in response to both coercive forces and voluntary behaviors of their institutional environment. However, buyer dependence of suppliers explains important paradoxes in their uptake of GSCM practices. For example, while the institutional drivers encourage greater adoption of green sourcing by suppliers, increase in buyer dependence in turn reduces the positive performance outcome of green sourcing. Practical implications The authors establish that understanding and assessment of the role of buyer dependency is critical for managers in charge of GSCM practices of their company. This enables practitioners to proactively manage paradoxes resulting from institutional drivers and buyer dependency through an informed decision on the type of GSCM practice to be adopted for effectuating performance improvement. Originality/value The authors provide empirical evidence on paradoxes that curtail performance associated with the uptake of GSCM practices by suppliers moving beyond institutional environment by considering the role of buyer dependency.

Green sourcing practices in Korea

PurposeBased on the empirical findings from a survey of Korean firms with greater environmental risks, this paper aims to identify variables that either promote or inhibit the successful implementation of green sourcing strategy and to evaluate the effects of green sourcing on the firm’s supplier selection, waste management, packaging and regulatory compliance.Design/methodology/approachTo help multinational firms configure an environmentally conscious (green) sourcing strategy, this paper conducted a mail-questionnaire survey and then analyzed the survey results obtained from more than 300 valid responses by using a series of multinomial logistics regression, ordinal regression and discriminant analyses. In addition, the authors performed a cluster analysis, chi-square tests of independence and cross tabulation to analyze the data.FindingsThe authors found that the main driver for the firm’s green sourcing practices is its customer needs and preferences for the environment-friendly product and services instead of peer pressure or government mandates (including environmental regulation). Surprisingly, the authors also found that the firm with a greater purchasing power did not necessarily factor the supplier’s advances in environmental programs into its supplier selection, although the firm’s amount of purchase volume can give it a bargaining strength to pressure its supplier to adopt the environmental programs.Originality/valueA rapid industrialization of Asia-Pacific countries for the past several decades brought unprecedented economic prosperity in those countries. However, it also eroded ecosystem quality gradually through air, water and ground contamination and pollution caused by industrial activities. Such concerns have prompted many firms in the Asia-Pacific region to reassess their up-stream supply chain strategy such as sourcing strategy. This paper is one of the first to examine how Asia-Pacific firms develop such strategy and identify the most common green sourcing practices that can be guidance for other firms embracing environmental programs.

Actual Practices of Environmental Performance in Malaysia’s Hotel Industry: Comparison among Malaysia, Mexico and Turkey Hotel Industry

Environmental performance generally led to various benefits for example cost savings, regulatory compliance, increase image and competitiveness. Along with the movement of environmental concerns, the hotel industry also continuously put an interest in environmental performance programs. The adoption of environmental performance programs in Malaysia's hotel industry is not widespread regardless of the success of several international hotel groups. Therefore, it is important to identify the environmental performance programs in the hotel industry by providing fresh insights and empirical evidence of the actual environmental performance programs that have been practicing in Malaysia. This study involved the participation of 206 respondents. The main finding is the environmental performance programs in Malaysia's hotel industry can be classified as four categories: energy saving, green sourcing, resource conservation, and water management and conservation. This result indicates that in Malaysia, the hotel industry performs four types of environmental performance programs and other countries such as Mexico and Turkey also carry out the same environmental performance activities as implemented in Malaysia.

3D Printing of Functional Microalgal Silk Structures for Environmental Applications.

Silk protein-based hydrogel materials suitable for hosting living microalgae due to the biocompatibility and ambient conditions gelation were developed. The silk was selected due to its robust mechanical properties, safe and compatible utility, green sourcing, and versatile materials formation. Through a series of assessments the mechanics and gelation kinetics of the hydrogel materials were optimized for three-dimensional (3D) printing. Silk hydrogel structures containing a marine microalgal strain, Platymonas sp. were printed and these structures supported cell proliferation for at least 4 weeks and consistent photosynthetic activity for more than 90 days, the limits of the study time frame. This long-term cell viability and function suggest that these systems may be suitable for a broad range of applications, such as oxygen replenishment and carbon dioxide reduction toward a green, healthier indoor environment.

Sourcing green makes green: Evidence from the BRICs

Facing increasing environmental concerns, many developing countries—especially Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRICs), which serve as the world's major business-to-business (B2B) servicing hubs offering manufacturing and sourcing services—seek solutions to reduce damage caused to the environment. We draw on Systems Theory to investigate the manner in which sourcing options of input materials affect the environmental performance of servicing firms in the BRICs. We hypothesize that servicing firms in developing countries can lower pollution intensity by (i) substituting dirty inputs with clean inputs and (ii) substituting domestically sourced inputs with inputs imported from developed countries. Based on the industry-level input-output matrix for the BRICs over the period 1995–2009, our empirical findings suggest that firms significantly improved their environmental performance by using cleaner inputs and more inputs imported from developed countries. We demonstrate service innovation in the form of green sourcing by using clean materials accessible through trade liberalisation to achieve environmental benefits. We advance knowledge of green supply chain management and green sourcing strategies of servicing firms in developing countries.

Approaches to responsible sourcing in mineral supply chains

Over the last decade, ‘responsible sourcing’ has become a topic of broad interest. Policymakers, consumers and companies refer to ‘responsible sourcing’ as a way to address sustainability risks in globalized mineral supply chains, but the term is used to refer to a wide range of sustainability objectives pursued by a variety of approaches. To address the need for a definition and structuring of the topic, a review was performed of the existing literature and of company policies on ‘responsible sourcing’ of minerals. The study develops a framework for responsible sourcing, here defined as ‘the management of social, environmental and/or economic sustainability in the supply chain through production data’. We propose that ‘responsible sourcing’ should be used as an umbrella term encompassing all sourcing designed to be ‘socially responsible’, ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’. Two approaches to managing responsible sourcing of minerals were identified: supply chain due diligence and sourcing via sustainability schemes. This study maps the sustainability requirements of such schemes and uses these to categorize them as socially responsible sourcing, sustainable sourcing or green sourcing. It also identifies the extent in the supply chain to which the schemes provide assurance or certification and how far traceability extends. The study provides a framework for future research and a springboard for further development of approaches to responsible sourcing that can be used by both companies and academics.

A Permissioned Blockchain Business Model for Green Sourcing

Problem Definition: End-consumers pay substantial price premia for green certified sustainably sourced products. In addition to the cost of sustainable practices themselves, record keeping required to keep track of those practices and auditing by certifying agencies are costly for the supplier. To make matters worse, information problems among supply chain partners -- moral hazard, adverse selection, and hold-up -- hinder both investments in technology and efforts toward green certification. We investigate whether the pairing of a new technology like blockchain with an access-based business model, where users of a technology pay for access rather than make large up-front investments, can alleviate these three information problems. Academic/Practical Relevance: Moral hazard, adverse selection, and hold-up are pervasive information problems in supply chains. We examine whether and how the recent phenomenon of companies setting-up permissioned blockchains can help address all three information problems concurrently for green supply~chains. Methodology: We build a game theoretic model of the interaction between the buyer and the supplier. We extend existing models by explicitly modeling the supplier's operational decisions in an open market as the supplier's outside option rather than assume fixed outside option values. Results: The implementation of blockchain technology allows the buyer to share more of its green premium with the supplier -- lowering moral hazard. By appropriately pricing access, the buyer can induce a separating equilibrium and address the adverse selection problem. By placing the burden of investment in technology with the buyer, an access-based business model also eliminates the hold-up problem. Managerial Implications: Our results show that blockchain technology -- on its own -- cannot alleviate all of the information problems faced by a green supply chain. Large buyers need to pair blockchain technology with an access-based business model to unleash its full potential.

Does Green Public Procurement lead to Life Cycle Costing (LCC) adoption?

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) is rarely used in public procurement and public institutions have yet to fully understand its potential value for sustainable procurement. The new European Directive on Public Procurement is, however, designed to position LCC as central to sustainable sourcing. Although previous studies have identified positive correlations between Green Public Procurement Policies (GPP) and LCC, it is still unclear how public institutions can further adopt LCC practices by leveraging their experience of green sourcing. In this study an organizational learning theoretical perspective is taken to investigate the circumstances under which public administrations’ experience of GPP – considered as a way of integrating the dimension of environmental sustainability into the sourcing process – stimulates their LCC learning and capabilities – considered as a way to include the sustainability economic dimension. The goal is to understand if the adoption of GPP can stimulate the internalisation of LCC in public tenders. A multinomial logistic regression was conducted using a sample of 120 public administrations located in different countries. The results show that experience of GPP stimulates the internalisation of LCC at a public level, but only under specific conditions. The study contributes to the Sustainable Supply Management literature, being one of the first studies in the field adopting an organizational learning theoretical lens to review the role of experience as significant opportunity to develop capabilities. It also contributes to the organizational learning theory, by confirming that experience can aid learning but only in specific environmental contexts.

Green employee sourcing and environmental sustainability at capital fish limited in Homa Bay town, Kenya

Green employee sourcing and environmental sustainability at capital fish limited in Homa Bay town, Kenya

P.4.e.002 - Neuromodulation of the hyperdirect pathway to study flexibility as an endophenotype of obsessive compulsive disorders

Climatic change has led to the amendment of the policies and regulations for having a green approach. Requirements for collaboration and visibility across the supply chain raised the need for the green approach. For the companies to achieve this, fundamental organizational changes need to take place, in addition to adopting a sustainable development plan that places focus on green activities such as energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Greening the supply chain is seen as adding a competitive edge to a company's supply chain. Food companies and food supply chains face even more significant challenges as they are highly affected by climatic change, food regulations, and resource limitations. Food companies need to incorporate environmental thinking into their core strategies and extend it across the whole supply chain. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of how a green food supply chain can be achieved. Different elements of the green food supply chain are discussed which are as follows: green food product, green farming, green food product design, green food sourcing and procurement, green warehousing, green food logistics, and green food supply chains.

Sustainable sourcing of strategic raw materials by integrating recycled materials

In this paper we investigate a manufacturer’s sustainable sourcing strategy that includes recycled materials. To produce a short life-cycle electronic good, strategic raw materials can be bought from virgin material suppliers in advance of the season and via emergency shipments, as well as from a recycler. Hence, we take into account virgin and recycled materials from different sources simultaneously. Recycling makes it possible to integrate raw materials out of steadily increasing waste streams back into production processes. Considering stochastic prices for recycled materials, stochastic supply quantities from the recycler and stochastic demand as well as their potential dependencies, we develop a single-period inventory model to derive the order quantities for virgin and recycled raw materials to determine the related costs and to evaluate the effectiveness of the sourcing strategy. We provide managerial insights into the benefits of such a green sourcing approach with recycling and compare this strategy to standard sourcing without recycling. We conduct a full factorial design and a detailed numerical sensitivity analysis on the key input parameters to evaluate the cost savings potential. Furthermore, we consider the effects of correlations between the stochastic parameters. Green sourcing is especially beneficial in terms of cost savings for high demand variability, high prices of virgin raw material and low expected recycling prices as well as for increasing standard deviation of the recycling price. Besides these advantages it also contributes to environmental sustainability as, compared to sourcing without recycling, it reduces the total quantity ordered and, hence, emissions are reduced.

Influence of Selected Green Human Resource Management Practices on Environmental Sustainability at Menengai Oil Refinery Limited Nakuru, Kenya

The study was designed to analyze some of the Green HR practices and their influence on environmental sustainability. The main variable for the study was to establish the influence of Green Human Resource management practices on environmental sustainability at Menengai Oil Refinery in Nakuru; Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive design, specifically a case study at Menengai Oil Refinery. Primary method of data collection was applied where questionnaires were used. The study targeted 275 permanent employees, from which a sample size of 163 employees was selected. Questionnaires were used in the data collection. The data was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics and presented inform of tables. The findings included: Green employee sourcing had a weak insignificant influence on environmental sustainability, Green occupation health and safety had a significant influence on environmental sustainability, Green training and development programs did not influence much environmental sustainability, Green performance management had significant influence on environmental sustainability and finally the influence of NEMA policies and regulations had the greatest influence on environmental sustainability. The study thus recommended that Menengai Oil refinery should strengthen its green performance management and occupational health systems to ensure environmental sustainability.