Sustainability and the Green Supply Chain Essay - 1

Sustainability and the Green Supply Chain - Essay Example In light of the concern for environmental safety, businesses are giving increasing importance to take environmental friendly initiatives in their operations. There are a number of driving forces for the companies to implement green supply chain in their business practices. The implementation of green supply chain and other environment friendly practices not only add to the corporate social responsibility portfolio of the company but also enhance sustainability and competitive advantage in the changing global scenario. The major international businesses have successfully implemented business practices such as eco-efficiency, cleaner production systems and an effective environmental management system in their processes. The major drivers influencing the use of environmental friendly processes are regulatory compliances, risk management, increasing efficiency and market expectations. The use of a supply chain environmental management (SCEM) starts from identifying suppliers pertaining t o the environmental performances and conducting the business in the proper manner to maintain adherence with the regulatory requirements. The implementation of the green supply chain management plays the most important role in ensuring that all the environmental concerns are addressed along with maximizing the efficiency and sustainability of the business. The green supply chain is adopted by businesses to decrease the environmental risks and increase the profits and market share for the business. In the recent few years it has been clearly observed that the businesses which are able to minimize the ecological impacts of their production processes and which have implemented the concepts of recycling wastage and environmental management have been able to expand their business and also displace the players who have not maintained an efficient environmental performance in their processes. Discussion Sustainable and green supply chain management has emerged as necessary approaches for t he businesses to remain environmentally sustainable as well as maintain their competitive advantage. The implementation of a green supply chain management in a business benefits the business in a number of ways the most critical being achieving sustainability (Florida, 1996, pp.80-105). The use of a green supply chain management system is a complex process starting with the identification of key processes, adherence to the environmental laws, assessing the benefits to the environment and the society, designing an efficient performance measurement system, evaluating alternatives for suppliers, vendors and distributors and implementing procedures for improvement (Beamon, 1999, pp.332-342). The different environmental management practices adopted by a business have a significant effect on the operation as well as the performance of the business (Erasmus, 2000, pp.28-33). The evaluation of the environmental approaches taken up by organizations has shown significant relationship between the environmental management system