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Sustainable Supply Chains pp 147–187Cite as

Green Logistics

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Part of the book series: Springer Series in Supply Chain Management ((SSSCM,volume 4))

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 to 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. 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. (2017) for an in-depth discussion of carbon footprinting, including more on the GHG Protocol Scope definitions.

  2. 2.

    The first three cases studies in this section closely follow “Delivering on the Promise of Green Logistics,” by Edgar Blanco and Ken Cotrill (Blanco and Cottrill 2013).

  3. 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. 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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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Edgar E. Blanco & Yossi Sheffi

  2. Walmart Stores, San Bruno, CA, USA

    Edgar E. Blanco

Authors
  1. Edgar E. Blanco
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  2. Yossi Sheffi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edgar E. Blanco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Axe Logistique Terre Mer Risque, Ecole de Management de Normandie, Le Havre, France

    Yann Bouchery

  2. Anderson School of Management, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Charles J. Corbett

  3. School of Industrial Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jan C. Fransoo

  4. School of Industrial Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Tarkan Tan

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© 2017 Yann Bouchery, Charles J. Corbett, Jan C. Fransoo, and Tarkan Tan

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Blanco, E.E., Sheffi, Y. (2017). Green Logistics. In: Bouchery, Y., Corbett, C., Fransoo, J., Tan, T. (eds) Sustainable Supply Chains. Springer Series in Supply Chain Management, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29791-0_7

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