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In recent years the natural environment becomes a major global issue. Due to increasing human and industrial impacts on the environment, environmental issues become more intense and widespread. In this regard, businesses need to place equal footing both on the environment and on their business objectives. This paper is an attempt to clarify the path towards that end and highlight steps to be taken by business organizations through green supply chain to make sustainable development a reality. Specifically the paper is interested to investigate the adoption of green supply chain initiatives. Three green supply chain initiatives e.g. green purchasing, eco-design, and reverse logistics were studied. The survey data was obtained from ISO 14001 certified manufacturing firms in Malaysia. The survey was conducted using structured mail questionnaire directed to the environmental management representative (EMR) in each firm. The results showed that ecodesign is the most adopted green supply chain initiative followed by green purchasing, while reverse logistics showed the lowest level of adoption. The result of the t-test revealed that there are no significant differences in green supply chain initiatives between firm ages and type of product. However, firms with large supplier base (more than 10 suppliers) are found to be significantly higher in green purchasing and eco-design than firms with lower supplier base. The result of the t-test disclosed also that firms that participate in greeninterested associations have significantly higher level of adoptions of green supply chain initiatives than firms that do not participate. Green supply chain initiatives can play significant role in achieving the "triple bottom line" of social, environmental, and economic benefits and, therefore, contributing to sustainable development of the society.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Environmental sustainability literature provides extensive evidence that business organizations, societies, and governments all have a stake in green operations management. Despite the importance of a firm's effort to alleviate environmental damages and provide economic benefits to organizations, little is known about the external institutional drivers that enable firms to adopt internal proactive environmental strategies. This purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which an internal proactive environmental strategy (eco-design) and external institutional drivers (government regulations and incentives, customer pressures) motivate firms to adopt eco-deigns that influence environmental performance. Design/methodology/approach -Hypotheses are tested using data from a sample of 132 EMS ISO 14001 -certified manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Specifically, this study uses survey data to validate the major premises in our proposed model. Findings -Empirical tests of the hypotheses with structural equation modeling (SEM) support the posited explanation that external institutional drivers influence a firm's environmental performance both directly and indirectly through its internal proactive environmental strategy. These findings extend prior research by establishing the importance of the relationships among regulations/incentives, customer pressures, eco-designs, and environmental performance. Research limitations/implications -Although the research design incorporates extensive literature reviews, it does not capture every aspect of underlying constructs characteristics. Future efforts should establish a valid, reliable instrument for these constructs. Practical implications -This research provides rigorous empirical support of the contribution of eco-design to environmental performance. This finding helps managers recognize how to leverage their internally developed eco-designs capabilities by responding to external pressures and institutional concerns. The response to external institutional pressures provides a basis for creating an inimitable eco-design resource base, which is critical to environmental sustainability. Originality/value -This study examines a key ...

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Abstract Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of four drivers, namely regulations (RG), customer pressures (CP), social responsibility (SR), and expected business benefits (EBB) on green purchasing (GP) in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. Design/methodology/approach -The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Directory 2007 and SIRIM organization, Malaysia, are the two sources provided the population units of 569, International Organization for Standardization 14001 certified manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Out of 569 firms, 132 (23.2 percent) positively responded for the mail survey on GP.Findings -The empirical findings of the study suggest that GP is affected by the drivers namely RG, CP, EBB, and firm ownership. The results also suggest that, although Malaysian firms show a high level of SR, it does not constitute a genuine driver for these firms to adopt GP.

In recent years, environmental issues become more intense and widespread. This calls for considering the issues of sustainable development in business operations. This paper utilised interviews with three organisations to identify green initiatives adopted in Malaysia, their drivers and outcomes. Analysis of the interviews indicates that the most adopted green initiatives in Malaysia are eco-design and green purchasing, followed by reverse logistics. The key drivers are regulations, customer pressures, expected business benefits and social responsibility. The study indicates that the outcomes of green initiatives are environmental, cost reductions, economic, in addition to company and brand image and reputation.