Recent Developments in Green Supply Chain Management

In today's supply chains, green and sustainable business practices have become an integral part of long-term strategy as well as the day-to-day operations, and sourcing and logistics play fundamental roles in ensuring the success of sustainable supply chains. In this chapter, we review recent research on three classes of decision models that are used in the logistics and sourcing functions of sustainable supply chains. Specifically, we examine and summarize recent developments in sustainable decision models for supplier selection, inventory lot-sizing, and last-mile delivery. Our review of the green and sustainable features found in these three models results in a single-source consolidation of models used in sustainable sourcing and logistics. This review may prove useful to researchers who focus on sustainable supply chain management and to practitioners who seek to expand their toolkit of models for the management and control of their supply chain.

Green Supply Chain Management Model for Sustainable Manufacturing Practices

The purpose of this chapter is to identify the dimensions of green supply chain and their impact on manufacturing practices. In this study, the authors used two extended strategies. First thorough review of literature was done considering articles from reputed journals. Second the factors identified from literature review was further refined through experts by forming a problem solving group consisting of seven experts from the manufacturing sector. These factors were used to develop the green supply chain management model using Interpretive structural modeling. Further MICMAC analysis was used to identify the driving and dependence power of the factors. The results of the analysis are very encouraging. Finally, the authors have presented the relationship management strategy for sustainable manufacturing practices.

Advocating Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Sustainability in Global Supply Chain

This chapter aims to advocate Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) and sustainability in global supply chain, thus describing the overview of Supply Chain Management (SCM); the overview of SSCM; the overview of Triple Bottom Line (TBL); TBL measures in terms of social, environmental, and economic perspectives; the multifaceted applications of SSCM; the barriers to the implementation of SSCM; the overview of sustainability; the utilization of sustainability in global supply chain; and the sustainability aspects in global supply chain concerning risk management, transparency, strategy, and culture. This chapter performs a detailed literature review and uses the conceptual theory to introduce the concept of TBL to implement SSCM practices and to promote sustainability in global supply chain. The chapter argues that advocating SSCM and sustainability has the potential to enhance organizational performance and achieve business goals in global supply chain.

A Waste Elimination Process

The continuous improvement using waste elimination has been emphasized as the most important task of modern organizations. Lean manufacturing system has proved its capability to eliminate waste and produce environmental gains. The eight types of waste identified under lean have positive relations to green waste. In this chapter, a waste elimination process is suggested as an approach for lean sustainable outcomes. The process structure contains three consecutive phases: waste documentation, waste analysis, and waste removal. The techniques and tools of each phase are inclusively discussed.

The Development and Analysis of Environmentally Responsible Supply Chain Models

Inventory management and supply chain management are integral issues and prime areas of concern in production and operations management, and industrial engineering. There is a drive for businesses and organizations to be accountable for their environmental impacts. Guaranteeing environmentally conscious supply chain operations is strongly linked to an organization's sustainability and overall success. The responsible management of forward and return product flows in production and inventory environments is a rapidly increasing requirement. This can be attributed to economic, environmental and/ or regulatory motivations. Mathematical modeling of such systems assists decision-making processes and provided a better understanding of the behavior of such production and inventory environments.

Sustainable Supply Chains

This chapter discusses sustainability in supply chains. It starts with a review of the concepts of sustainability and supply chain management; provides a discussion on the globalization of supply chains, its influence on sustainability, benefits of sustainable supply chains followed by the factors affecting the sustainability of supply chains, challenges in integrating sustainability into supply chains and managerial implications. It discusses the influence of supply chains on the triple bottom line. Examples of major factors affecting environmental and social sustainability include travel distances, modes of transportation, vessels used, frequency of trips, packaging materials, efficiencies of manufacturing processes, efficiencies in power generation/distribution, treatments given to polluted air/water generated during various processing from industries, expected product lifetime, manufactured quality of items, management of items failed during warranty or transportation, and the management of disposal of items, among others. The chapter concludes with a future research agenda.

Assessing the Green Supply Chain Management for the United Arab Emirates Construction Industry

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) construction industry has been witnessing an unprecedented growth in the last two decades. As a result, the sector is facing a major challenge of reducing the carbon footprint and thus creating major concern for the governments and the environmental agencies in the UAE. The chapter discusses the role of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) in achieving sustainability in the UAE construction industry. The various stages of GSCM applicable to the construction industry are critically assessed along with green performance measures in achieving environmental, economic and operational performance. Finally, the chapter provides a list of recommendations that could be used by practitioners and policy makers in implementing and measuring sustainability practices in the construction industry.

Integrated Sustainable Supply Chain Management

In today's sustainable world the thinking should be what is the life cycle costs, resources or supply chain process. The rapid industrialization had caused negative impact on the environment because of the increase in the pollution, waste, and rapid consumption of natural resources. This chapter is reviews the previous literature on current practices and future direction of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM), thus, it can increase practitioner's understanding of the importance and value of sustainable supply chain practices. A wide literature review is conducted to identify the relative important factors constitute of Sustainable Supply Chain Integration framework. Content analysis is introduced and applied for reviewing literature reviews of supply chain management, published in English-speaking peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2014. A descriptive evaluation of the literature body is followed by a content analysis on the basis of a specific pattern of analytic categories derived from a typical research process. With best understanding the concept of SSCM and gap identification from literature review, this chapter can contribute to extended model of SSCM and enhance firm competitiveness. This understanding is vital due to the increase of economic importance of sustainable supply chains in addition to their role in enhancing competitive power of companies in international markets.

An Introduction to Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Business Implications

The chapter will explain the concept of sustainability in supply chain management. Sustainability in business operations is fast becoming a vital element to successful global acceptance. It is also one of the major marketing strategies for Points-of-Difference (POD) product positioning. It is necessary to have a basic knowledge of how sustainability is brought about in supply chains in order to truly comprehension the opportunities from it. An understanding of the basic elements to sustainability in supply chain management and global models adopted for implementation of sustainability by corporations is essential. The chapter further focuses on introducing the concept of reverse logistics as sustainability supply chain process and the strategic advantage for industries from adoption of reverse logistics across the supply chain. An insight into United Nations Global Compact program for sustainability across businesses and sustainability governance has been provided.