The maritime sector and shipping industry have been argued to be effective drivers of international trade. Internationalization has become a strategic business plan by entrepreneurs and industry players to expand the business, especially when their business was already established in the domestic market. However, current international laws began to be tightened by requiring each exporting and shipping firms to implement green sea transport practices and documentations. A limited number of empirical-based evidence has forced the maritime practitioners to conduct business without clear green concepts knowledge and availability of best business practices to be benchmarked. With this in mind, the aim of this chapter is to examine current issues, differences, and dilemmas confronting practitioners, governments, stakeholders, and scholars. This chapter has developed a green maritime supply chain concept based on practitioners' reflections and provides future direction to scholars interested in studying green logistics and supplying chain management in the maritime sector.
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As a global trade facilitator, the maritime supply chain plays a central role in providing a relatively low-cost and efficient mode of transportation compared to the value of the goods being shipped worldwide. Maritime supply chain contributed to about 90% of entire world trade volumes through commodities movement by seaway (Lister, Poulsen, & Ponte, 2015). Currently, the function of seaborne trade has been an important backbone to Malaysia's economic growth and development (Jeevan, Ghaderi, Bandara, Saharuddin, & Othman, 2015). The effectiveness and proficient management of materials, products, and information systems depended on maritime ports and shipping as the key components of Malaysian maritime supply chain activities. In addition to this, a myriad of Malaysian industries ranging from foods, industrial merchandise, and energy resources are much dependent on a relatively secure handling logistic and safe delivery process of the global shipping industry. As part of life-line trade for many global companies, the maritime sector is essential to maintain economic development and prosperity distribution throughout the nation, thus satisfying a critical societal role as part of Malaysia's imperative economic function.
Conversely, in the decade after the onset of climate change and global warming concerns, a greater focus has been put on the maritime sector's sustainability (Jasmi, Fernando, & Ismail, 2020). Although sea transportation has comparatively the ‘greener image’ because of its less emitting CO2 per ton-mile than other transportation, given its scale and rapid development, it could be a major contributor towards climate change globally (Lister et al., 2015). The rising public interest and consciousness regarding environmental issues caused by maritime operations are a major challenge within the maritime circle (Jasmi & Fernando, 2021). Moreover, the current inclination towards climate change, conservation, and environmental sustainability has been extensively discussed by industry players, stakeholders, and worldwide political leaders (Jasmi & Fernando, 2018; Revkin, 2009; Rosenthal, 2009). The significant connotation of this mounting issue could be reflected through the course of research devoted to addressing climate change issues within the business environment. Facilitating the role of the intermediary global supply chain, maritime industries globally have begun to act in response to environmental concerns by embracing sustainable practices in their operations (Jasmi & Fernando, 2018; Sarkis, Zhu, & Lai, 2011). From an environmental perspective, the rising pressure as depicted by worldwide concerns on environmental problems also affects Malaysian maritime sectors. The Malaysian maritime sector that occupies diverse activities that utilise hydrocarbon resources also discharge hazardous emissions that may contribute to the climatic problem. In this sense, there is mounting pressure on Malaysia's maritime industry to side with sustainable operation following the international trend in sustainability.