Purpose The paper consists of a literature review about the green supply chain management (GSCM), a concept which has been gaining ground around the organizations worldwide. The traditional supply chain (SC) was forced to evolve in GSCM as an option for companies to improve their economical, operational and environmental performance. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how green practices (GP) have a powerful dependence to the SC execution from companies around the world. A GP can be briefly defined as the actions being consciously done being responsible to the environment. Design/methodology/approach The paper is exploratory. The topic was delimited through a review of similar papers, analyzing the different type of tools and the GP considered in each paper. For last, a conclusion will be exposed. Findings The “green movement” within the SC is increasing fast around the world, since the increasing awareness of industrialized countries are recurring in practices that impact directly to the environment. Therefore, costs of extra energy consumption are generated, as well as the imminent worrying reputation among customers due to the lack of responsibility to the environment. Research limitations/implications The document only covers the topic from a theoretical aspect through a literature review. Originality/value This paper covers not only strategies related to GSCM and GP from European and Asian countries are approached, but also Latin American performance, exposing briefly the adoption of GSCM.