Green Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Green Supply Chain Management - Essay Example Green et al (2008) have described supply chain management as integration and coordination of strategy alignments such as responsiveness, customer focus, quality, efficiency etc and business processes such as purchasing raw material, manufacturing product, logistics, marketing and (IS) or information system in the supply chain with an intention of satisfying purpose of end users. Zelbst et al (2010) have found that, activities throughout the supply chain causes environment pollution but if organizations manage its supply chain activities then it will not only decrease environmental pollution but also help the organization to decrease costs related to fuel fed transportation system which is an integrated part of supply chain management. Vachon and Klassen (2007) have found that environment sustainability is more of supply chain imperative in contrast to organizational imperative. Green et al (2008) have raised question over the holistic nature of the term â€Å"sustainable supply chai n management† and stated that, it is necessary for every supply chain partner to act responsively otherwise it is not possible to design a sustainable supply chain framework. In such context, Vasileiou and Morris (2006) have stated that green supply chain or sustainable supply is the environment friendly version of supply chain activities, for example, in the green supply chain; products are manufactured through environment friendly manner, transported through environment friendly vehicles and stored in environment friendly manner. Research scholars have argued that, manufacturing companies were forced to think about a greener supply chain management due to increasing pressure of governmental environmental regulations. It is evident from the above discussion that green supply chain is highly debatable topic among research scholars; hence study will dig deep on the topic by reviewing the existing literature on green supply chain and find how companies can improve their green su pply chain management. Any discussion on green supply chain will be incomplete without defining or understanding core elements of green supply chain management, hence in the next section the study will try define the concept of green supply chain management. Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) According to Handfield and Nichols (2002, p.8), â€Å"Supply chain management is an integrated management system of supply chain organisations and activities through cooperative organisational relationships, business processes, and high levels of information sharing systems that provide member organisations a sustainable competitive advantage.† In such context, Van Hoek (2002) has pointed out that organizations need to work on improving social and environmental benefits for its value chain partners, which means organizations, need to implement greener technology in order to decrease carbon emission in the value chain. Organizations need to think about environmental impact of the supply chain on consumers, for example, fuel fed transportation between supplier and the consumer not only creates negative impact on the environment but also increases cost for customers. Zhu et al. (2008, p. 262) have given a holistic definition of GSCM by taking account the concept of value chain, â€Å"green purchasing to integrated life-cycle management of supply chains flowing from supplier, through to manufacturer, customer, and closing the loop with reverse logistics.†