IN BRIEF In business today, companies cannot ignore environmental issues. Increasing government regulation and stronger public mandates for environmental accountability have brought these issues into the executive suite, and onto strategic planning agendas. At the same time, companies are integrating their supply chain processes to lower costs and better serve customers. These two trends are not independent; companies must involve suppliers and purchasers to meet and even exceed the environmental expectations of their customers and their governments. Based on case studies of five companies in the furniture industry, a number of supply chain environmentally‐friendly practices (EFP) are identified. Using accepted qualitative research methods for case‐based research, several primary areas for change to increase purchasing's impact on environmental results are identified: 1. Materials used in product design for the environment 2. Product design processes 3. Supplier process improvement 4. Supplier evaluation 5. Inbound logistics processes The experiences of these companies illustrate the types of environmentally‐friendly practices used in each of these five areas, and “rules of thumb” which purchasing and supply chain managers can apply. Two additional themes which emerge from this research are the importance of management's commitment to supply chain EFP, and the need to move beyond environmental compliance to achieve a proactive environmentally‐friendly supply chain.

This paper draws on the results of interviews with five environmental managers in the furniture industry to develop a taxonomy of environmentally‐friendly (‘green’) best practices within the operations management value chain. This taxonomy is then extended to develop a group of propositions concerning the role of management in promoting environmentally‐friendly practices. The results suggest that in order to be successful, environmental management strategies must be integrated into all stages of the value chain, which includes all of the processes spanning product design, procurement, manufacturing and assembly, packaging, logistics, and distribution. While the potential for environmental performance improvement in all five of the companies is evident, all of them demonstrated ‘pockets’ of environmentally‐friendly practices (EFP) in different areas of their respective value chain functions. The propositions and results emerging from the analysis also suggests that reacting to regulations is no longer sufficient. World‐class EFP must anticipate and pre‐empt changing environmental regulations and customer expectations, and proactively prepare products, processes and infrastructure for these changes without sacrificing competitive advantage.

IN BRIEF Past studies into EDI have shown, mostly by examples, that EDI can be used as a supplier management tool to achieve improved supplier reliability by providing both trading partners with better information. This, in turn, leads to closer supplier relationships, fewer late orders, and a decrease in problems with delivered quality, quantity, or mix. The research discussed in this article tests this contention by examining EDI usage patterns and supplier reliability in a sample of 30 companies that transmit purchase orders to their suppliers via EDI. The study found that the quality of delivered products and materials, as well as the delivery of the correct item/mix, is related significantly to (1) the buyer's experience using EDI as a tool in supplier management; (2) the willingness of both the buyer and supplier to share sensitive production and capacity information; (3) the acquisition of the EDI system; and (4) the level of EDI integration with other computer applications. Integrating the findings of this study with past research suggests that EDI can be used as part of an overall supplier management strategy to improve supplier performance and reduce the cost associated with materials acquisition.