To Greener Pastures: An Action Research Study on the Environmental Sustainability of Humanitarian Supply Chains

Purpose: While humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) inherently contribute to social sustainability by alleviating the suffering of afflicted communities, their unintended adverse environmental impact has been overlooked hitherto. This paper draws upon contingency theory to synthesize green practices for HSCs, identify the contingency factors that impact on greening HSCs and explore how focal humanitarian organizations (HOs) can cope with such contingency factors. Design/methodology/approach: Deploying an action research methodology, two-and-a-half cycles of collaboration between researchers and a United Nations agency were completed. The first half-cycle developed a deductive greening framework, synthesizing extant green practices from the literature. In the second and third cycles, green practices were adopted/customized/developed reflecting organizational and contextual contingency factors. Action steps were implemented in the HSC for prophylactics, involving an operational mix of disaster relief and development programs. Findings: First, the study presents a greening framework that synthesizes extant green practices in a suitable form for HOs. Second, it identifies the contingency factors associated with greening HSCs regarding funding environment, stakeholders, field of activity and organizational management. Third, it outlines the mechanisms for coping with the contingency factors identified, inter alia, improving the visibility of headquarters over field operations, promoting collaboration and resource sharing with other HOs as well as among different implementing partners in each country, and working with suppliers for greener packaging. The study advances a set of actionable propositions for greening HSCs. Practical implications: Using an action research methodology, the study makes strong practical contributions. Humanitarian practitioners can adopt the greening framework and the lessons learnt from the implementation cycles presented in this study. Originality/value: This is one of the first empirical studies to integrate environmental sustainability and HSCs using an action research methodology

Evaluating urban freight transport policies within complex urban environments

Urban Freight Transport (UFT) entails significant advantages for the economic growth of cities, but can also hamper population quality of life, obstructing vehicles and people movements while exacerbating environmental problems. Many initiatives have been engaged by many city administrators in order to efficiently manage UFT, evaluating different policies at a global scale. From the perspective of operators, most works analyze a limited set of policies or only focus on the benefits of companies. In this work, a decisionmaking process is used to evaluate a large set of UFT policies, through different attributes representing the advantages and limitations of each policy over promoter companies and the society. To do so, an ex-ante procedure in five steps is proposed to classify the policies: (1) attributes definition, (2) attributes weighting, (3) policy-attribute assessment, (4) policy ranking, and (5) feasibility threshold satisfaction. The whole process is supported on consultations to 26 experts regarding shop supply and restocking activities within complex urban environments. Results show a classification of the analyzed policies, according to their suitability for implementation ; which could be extended (directly or with small adjustments) to other contexts, given the flexibility of the decision-making procedure developed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Pomiar wydajności zarządzania zielonymi łańcuchami dostaw

Only what is measured can be managed properly. And the measurement process should serve a continuous improvement of companies and whole supply chains. Data from the performance measurement system should cause an increase of cooperation and help in taking right decisions about changes at the operational level, and on the other hand, are an important information when redefining strategies. This will allow for the development of the supply chain based on knowledge, in which the scope of cooperation is literally unlimited (including green aspects). There are two basic approaches to measuring the performance of supply chains: a comprehensive measurement that measures the results of the entire chain (which can be divided into individual tiers and levels) and partial measurement when we measure only certain aspects. Often, in practice, only measurement of separately operating companies is practiced by companies, not throughout chains. And the problem is even more evident when it comes to measuring performance of green activities in integrated supply chains. The paper presents the possibilities of evaluation of GSCM performance. The major challenges and obstacles are presented and assessed.Tylko to, co jest mierzone, może być właściwie zarządzane. Proces pomiaru powinien służyć ciągłemu doskonaleniu przedsiębiorstw i całych łańcuchów dostaw. Dane z systemu pomiaru powinny powodować wzrost współpracy i pomagać w podejmowaniu decyzji o zmianach na poziomie operacyjnym, a z drugiej strony może to być ważna informacja przy przedefiniowaniu strategii. Pozwala to na rozwój łańcuchów dostaw opartych na wiedzy, gdzie zakres współpracy jest dosłownie nieograniczony (dotyczy to również aspektów ekologicznych). Istnieją dwa podstawowe podejścia do pomiaru wydajności łańcucha dostaw: kompleksowy pomiar, który patrzy na wyniki całego łańcucha (który można rozdzielić na poszczególne szczeble i poziomy), oraz pomiar częściowy, gdy mierzymy tylko niektóre aspekty. Często praktykowany jest tylko pomiar oddzielnie działających firm, a nie całego łańcucha. Problem jest jeszcze bardziej widoczny, jeśli chodzi o pomiar wydajności działań ekologicznych w zintegrowanych łańcuchach dostaw. W artykule opisano możliwości oceny wyników GSCM. Przedstawiono i oceniono główne wyzwania i przeszkody stojące przed pomiarem wyników zielonych łańcuchów dostaw

Overview and classification of coordination contracts within forward and reverse supply chains

Among coordination mechanisms, contracts are valuable tools used in both theory and practice to coordinate various supply chains. The focus of this paper is to present an overview of contracts and a classification of coordination contracts and contracting literature in the form of classification schemes. The two criteria used for contract classification, as resulted from contracting literature, are transfer payment contractual incentives and inventory risk sharing. The overview classification of the existing literature has as criteria the level of detail used in designing the coordination models with applicability on the forward and reverse supply chains.Coordination contracts; forward supply chain; reverse supply chain

Enhancing Brand Equity Through Sustainability: Waste Recycling

Unlike many existing research studies that explain reverse marketing from a purchasing perspective, this study recognizes it as an honest effort made by managers aiming to promote sustainability by purposefully managing waste and discusses the spillover effect of their initiatives on brand equity. It argues that efficient recycling of products through reverse marketing by a brand demonstrates its sincere intent to adopt sustainable business practices and enhances its equity in the marketplace. A business-to-business viewpoint has been used to combine knowledge about waste recycling and management through reverse marketing based on the unpretentious operations and management practices. The propositions reflect on the criticality of engaging business customer firms in a procedural mechanism of recycling for increase in brand equity as the success of reverse marketing. A comprehensive adoption of an initiative like waste management through reverse marketing by a brand highlights how sustainability initiatives can create value for the customers of the brand and ultimately drive brand equity

Sustainable supply chain management in city logistics solutions: an experience's comeback from Cityporto Padua (Italy)

The sustainable logistics and transportation studies constitute a primordial research axis in the enterprises' governance. In the last years, many reflections and developments in logistics research have studied the economic and the environmental questions related to supply chain management, but only few of them consider sustainability in its totality. Moreover, in practice, city logistics systems conception and planning is currently following a sustainable approach. The aim of this paper is to start a reflection about the three dimensions of sustainable supply chain management (economic, environmental and social), and illustrate these concepts by the results of an experience's comeback from a city logistics system, Cityporto (Padua, Italy).Sustainable Supply Chain Management; experience's comeback; urban freight distribution

Are City Logistics Solutions Sustainable? The Cityporto case

Urban logistics is a field that studies the best solutions for urban freight distribution with high environmental objectives. However, most actions are started by public authorities without taking into account the impacts of the new organizational schemas in the existing distribution enterprises' organization. This paper sets out to show that urban logistics approaches are currently important with reference to the noise and pollution in city center. To this end, we present the success experience of Cityporto (Padoua) in Italy. Cityporto is a service which makes deliveries in city centre by using GPL and electric lorries. So, the service is considered as less polluting as a conventional approach. In this context, it allows a delivery at any time of the day, also in the Limited Traffic Zone which is closed at certain hours of the day. This is based on the findings from an exploratory qualitative approach. Documentary analysis several interviews have be made. These concern three internal stakeholders of Interporto di Padova (the company which manages the intermodal platform of Padova, in charge of Cityporto) and one member of Padova's Municipality (which promote the project). The results of this case study show that environmental aspect is one of the foundations of the project, but the economic continuity has to be first ensured. Indeed, the preservation of this service on the long term is subjected to its solvency. Moreover, its success is associated to the recognition by employees, and also customers. With regard to the collected information, it is possible to propose a balanced scorecard, where three axes emerged in connexion with economic, environmental and social dimensions. The paper makes a contribution to the evaluation and measurement of city urban logistics using a success story that has been developed from the practitioner perspective. This experience could provide a basis for further practices in Italy and other European countries. In conclusion, the proposed case study is presented for its academic, policy and managerial implications. This experience conceptualises city logistics in relation with the Sustainable Development, setting the main objectives and steps of urban planning for freight distribution and logistics issues. But above all, it provides an understanding of the key success factors in a green transport organisation which can become a pivotal position in the upstream supply chain. De facto, the study should facilitate the implementation of green urban logistics taking into account the importance of the project's economic continuity.City logistics, sustainability, case study, qualitative research, management

Multi crteria decision making and its applications : a literature review

This paper presents current techniques used in Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and their applications. Two basic approaches for MCDM, namely Artificial Intelligence MCDM (AIMCDM) and Classical MCDM (CMCDM) are discussed and investigated. Recent articles from international journals related to MCDM are collected and analyzed to find which approach is more common than the other in MCDM. Also, which area these techniques are applied to. Those articles are appearing in journals for the year 2008 only. This paper provides evidence that currently, both AIMCDM and CMCDM are equally common in MCDM