Sustainable warehouse management: a literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

Purpose Warehouses, essential nodes in the supply chain, significantly contribute to sustainability issues, accounting for about 11% of emissions related to logistics activities. The purpose of this study is to review articles on sustainable warehouse management (SWM) from the Scopus database to analyze trends, synthesize existing knowledge, and identify research gaps for future studies. Design/methodology/approach The review uses text mining of initial relevant documents to create a search string for paper retrieval. Text mining is further used to generate a dendrogram of the most frequently used words in the research papers, which is then analyzed to identify themes and sub-themes in SWM. Findings The dendrogram reveals four major themes and their sub-themes within SWM, including two novel themes: sustainable warehouse in green logistics and sustainable warehouse location. In addition, 12 research recommendations are identified through content analysis and are subsequently linked to specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Research limitations/implications The methodological innovation in keyword selection for searching relevant papers and identifying themes serves as a structured template for researchers to explore further. Practical implications The research recommendations, aligned with the SDGs, aim to assist managers in making informed decisions and operational strategies to enhance factors associated with the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method and the sustainable performance of warehouses. Originality/value This study is novel in its application of text-mining techniques to generate a search string for identifying relevant papers and discerning themes by analyzing the dendrogram.