Green Supply Chain Management Theory and Practices

Introduction

In recent years, companies have been obliged to reformulate their environmental policies due to increases in environmental problems caused by products. However; implementing the reformulated environmental policies only in the scope of specific companies has not been sufficient to decrease the environmental damages of the products in question. Therefore, the requirement to extend companies’ environmental activities to include the whole supply chain has been instrumental in the concept of green supply chain management (GSCM). This is a multidisciplinary concept generated by constructing environmental management practices in the context of supply chains (Eltayeb, Zailani, & Ramayah, 2011). With the addition of environmental issues to supply chain management concept, the context has been extended so that each step from organization’s materials management and transportation functions to the end customer can be structured to include environmental awareness (Simpson & Power, 2005). Hence, it can be argued that GSCM has a wide field of activity. The fact that GSCM is a new and broad field which is developed day by day brings some challenges as well. In this sense, one of the most important challenges is the creation of a holistic framework related to GSCM dimensions/practises. As a result, it is necessary to present the dimensions of green supply chain management in order to comprehend it better. With this aim in mind, this study sets out to examine different GSCM dimensions.

First of all, the study will address the concept of GSCM, followed by a review of green supply chain management practices which in turn will be examined in more depth in the form of sub-titles.