Summary
This article reports on research toward a pragmatic and credible means for analyzing, mapping, and managing environmental impacts along supply chains. The results of this research include a management tool called “ecological supply chain analysis” (EcoSCAn) that is presented here for the first time. Its structure bears a passing resemblance to that used in some streamlined life‐cycle assessments, but its operation and purpose are quite different. The EcoSCAn tool frames a comparative environmental analysis of products capable of performing broadly equivalent functions. The analysis occurs over complete extended supply chains and within defined supply chain stages at a product level and, to some extent, at a site level. The results are mapped with data confidence indicators. A range of tactical and, where data quality is sufficient, strategic supply chain actions are prompted. Actions to mitigate environmental stress are possible in the absence of good quality data across entire product life cycles, although the extent to which management actions are limited is made plain.
Researchers and policy-makers have become increasingly enthusiastic about greening purchasing and supply management activities. In theory, greening supply should both limit environmental damage from industrial activities and deliver bottom-line benefits to implementing firms. However, compared with other environmental initiatives, few firms have implemented extensive green supply programmes.This paper seeks to resolve the apparent paradox between the desirability of green supply in theory and the slow implementation of green supply in practice. Using data from a recent series of interviews and a questionnaire in the UK, we examine the green supply practices adopted by particular types of firm and their performance implications. We cluster the operating units in our sample into four archetypal groups of green supply adopters and examine the characteristics of each group. We conclude that explaining the gap between the theory and practice of green supply requires looking beyond the aggregate pattern across firms. Firms are not ignoring the potential private benefits from green supply. On the contrary, they are rational actors playing to their own strengths and designing appropriate packages of green supply activities within their own corporate environmental, procurement and performance contexts.
• Environmental management• Purchasing• Supply-chain management• Cluster analysis• Supply management capabilities
• PerformanceDr Paul Cousins was a lecturer in operations and supply management at the University of Bath's School of Management, UK. He has now moved to the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he continues to research in the area of of supply strategy and relationship management.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.