Green supply chain research: past, present, and future
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REVIEW ARTICLE
Green supply chain research: past, present, and future Hokey Min • Ilsuk Kim
Received: 8 October 2011 / Accepted: 4 February 2012 / Published online: 18 February 2012 Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract In the past several decades, great strides have been made to incorporate the ethical and environmental responsibilities into the core culture of today’s business world. With the increased attention paid to such responsibilities, a growing number of firms have explored ‘‘greening’’ (environmental-friendly) initiatives as their competitive strategic weapons. This paper traces the evolution of green supply chain research, synthesizes the past and current research efforts to develop a viable green supply chain strategy, and then proposes promising future research themes related to this strategy. Keywords Green supply chain management Sustainability Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
1 Introduction Realizing that sustainability can drive the improvement of the company’s bottom line through cost savings, improved market share, and stronger brand images, a growing number of firms have begun to take ‘‘greening’’ (environmentalfriendly) initiatives as their strategic weapons. Following H. Min (&) James R. Good Chair in Global Supply Chain Strategy, Research Director of the Supply Chain Management Institute, Department of Management, BAA 3008C, College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA e-mail: [email protected] I. Kim Department of Management, BAA 3019C, College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA e-mail: [email protected]
this industry trend, the interest of academia on sustainability has also begun to increase substantially in the late 1990s. This growing interest sparked a series of new lines of research dealing with various supply chain activities that have important environmental implications. These activities include sourcing that involves acquiring, storing, handling, and recovering virgin or recycled materials. In sourcing, for example, the failure to reduce the obsolescence and waste of maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) supplies or scrap materials can contribute to environmental problems. In manufacturing, for example, the irresponsible disposal of defective products or unwanted manufacturing by-products can adversely impact the environment. Likewise, logistics reliance on transportation modes such as trucks and airplanes using fossil burning fuels and the subsequent emission of CO2 can pollute the living environment such as air, water, and ground. One of the first attempts to consider the environmental implications of supply chain activities includes: [5, 12, 18]. To elaborate, Sarkis [12] identified potential research agenda by linking environmentally conscious manufacturing to supply chain management. Min and Galle [5] examined the impact of environmentalism on purchasing practices and identified a variety of environmental factors influencing the supplier selection decision through the em
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