Abstract
Traditionally, logistics decisions have been driven by minimizing cost, maximizing profitability, or achieving customer service targets. As companies have added sustainability goals to their business objectives, there has been an increased interest in mitigating the social and environmental impact of their products and operations.
Green logistics refers to the systematic measurement, analysis, and, ultimately, mitigation of the environmental impact of logistics activities. This chapter describes the main environmental impacts of logistic operations, namely, greenhouse gases, pollution, noise, vibration, and packaging waste. It introduces the various green logistics strategies available to mitigate these impacts, how these impacts can be incorporated in logistics decision-making, and how organizations collaborate to implement green logistics in practice.
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Notes
- 1.
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard also includes a scope definition. Although conceptually related, it does not correspond to the scope definition when applied to logistics activities. See Chap. 3 by Boukherroub et al. (2024) for an in-depth discussion of carbon footprinting, including more on the GHG Protocol Scope definitions.
- 2.
The first three case studies in this section closely follow “Delivering on the Promise of Green Logistics,” by Edgar Blanco and Ken Cotrill (Blanco & Cottrill, 2013).
- 3.
The Boise organization described in this case study refers to Boise Cascade LLC, the paper and forest products. It should not be confused with Boise Cascade Corporation that is now OfficeMax Incorporated.
- 4.
Based on interviews and research conducted by K. C. Tan and E. E. Blanco from the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics in 2009
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Blanco, E.E., Sheffi, Y. (2024). Green Logistics. In: Bouchery, Y., Corbett, C.J., Fransoo, J.C., Tan, T. (eds) Sustainable Supply Chains. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45565-0_5
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