How can organizations tackle environmental constraints to reach an eco-efficient supply chain?

Résumé du document

For many years, being ecologically and environmentally friendly was not a concern for companies; they mostly focused on costs no matter how harmful their practices and processes might be for the environment. However, today, environmental issues are growing and becoming a real threat. Consequently, environmental pressures on businesses are getting more and more important, especially since many different stakeholders have become aware and worried about the undesirable side effects of economic growth. This new "environmental era" is a real challenge for companies which now have to find a way to deal at the same time with economic development and environmental protection. Therefore, organizations having to be responsible for their products "from cradle to grave" are reconsidering their logistics strategies in order to meet these new constraints and the traditional Supply Chain (SC) is likely to be modified. Reverse logistics has been the main answer; but as its requirements focus mostly on the manufacturing phase and the disposal of products, other approaches should be considered. In particular, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) goes further and proves that companies can improve their environmental practices at each stage of their SC by adopting a proactive attitude and implementing upstream a real strategy they follow along the SC.

Extraits

[...] How can organizations tackle environmental constraints to reach an eco- efficient supply chain? Content Content ii Summary iii Introduction 4 I. Environmental constraints: a new issue for organizations 4 A. State of the environment 4 B. Pressures from stakeholders 5 C. Current responses from organization: popular approaches and new practices 6 II. The supply chain redefined: from traditional supply chain to reverse logistics and Green Supply Chain 6 A. [...]

[...] Reverse logistics/ closed loop 7 B. Green supply chain model 7 C. Green supply chain alternatives 8 III. Optimizing the Green Supply Chain to get economic benefits 9 A. Life Cycle Assessment 9 B. Life cycle engineering & Life Cycle Value assessment 10 C. Another analytical tool: the BASF eco-efficiency analysis 10 D. [...]

[...] Strategies revolve around two main areas: evaluating suppliers' environmental performance and monitoring and assisting them to improve their performance. During the production phase, several concepts can be used: cleaner production, design for environment, remanufacturing and lean production. These concepts imply that raw-materials should be environmentally-friendly and substituted by others if not; that design has to fit the environment, that processes should be optimized to reduce waste; that cleaner technology should be used and that reverse logistics should be incorporated in the phase. [...]

[...] Greening the SC can endow firms with a competitive advantage and enhanced economic performance because they work on minimizing waste, using natural resources more adequately, improving efficiency and productivity, hence reducing Conclusion The implementation of green practices and more globally of a GSC, as well as the use of tools such as LCA is the key for organizations to tackle environmental constraints and reach an eco-efficient SC. However, many companies feel it is a burden because they expect their costs to zoom up. Companies still have a negative perception on this issue because too few studies have demonstrated a clear link between greening the SC, competitive advantage and economic performance. Future research should focus more on this topic to encourage organizations to adopt environmentally-friendly practices. [...]

[...] The traditional SC has definitely to be modified. The supply chain redefined: from traditional supply chain to reverse logistics and Green Supply Chain As we mentioned earlier, many stakeholders are becoming more and more concerned about environmental issues and are putting pressure on companies to make them adopt ecologically-friendly practices. According to them, companies are to be held responsible for their products “from cradle to grave”, which means that they should be accountable for the whole product- life cycle, from the arrival of the raw material to the end of life of the finished products Reverse logistics/ closed loop As a first step towards the improvement of environmental practices in logistics, the emphasis is put on waste generated by packaging and products. [...]