“CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IS NOT THE PLACE FOR COMPETITION”
Logistics is the integrated management of all the activities required to move products through the supply chain. For a typical product this supply chain extends from a raw material source through the production and distribution system to the point of consumption and the associated reverse logistics. The logistical activities comprise of freight transport, storage, inventory management, materials handling and all the related information processing. The main objective of logistics is to co-ordinate these activities in a way that meets customer requirements at minimum cost. In the past this cost has been defined in purely monetary terms. As concern for the environment rises, companies must take more account of the external costs of logistics associated mainly with climate change, air pollution, noise, vibration and accidents. It is important that we examine ways of reducing these externalities and achieve a more sustainable balance between economic, environmental and social objectives.
The ‘Green Logistics’ refers to plan, control, management and implementation of the logistics system through the advanced logistics technology and environmental management, aiming to reduce the pollutant emission. According to the logistics link, the evaluation criterions of enterprise green logistics are Green Transportation, Green Storage, Green Packing, Reverse Logistics and Green Technology.
What we call ‘Green Logistics’ represents the convergence of several strands of research that began different times over the past 40 years. In these years it has developed as a an academic discipline, extending its original focus on the outbound movement of finished products – Physical distribution to companies entire transport, storage and handling systems – Integrated Logistics and then to interaction with business upstream and downstream- Supply Chain Management. Other major contextual trends includes the growth of environmental awareness, regulations, and development of national and international standards for environmental reporting and management that many companies now adopt as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes. Partly as result of these trends, the volume of statistics available to ‘Green Logistics’ researchers has greatly expanded.
In measuring the environmental effects of logistics it is important to distinguish the first order and second order impacts. The first order environmental effects are those which are directly associated with the freight transport, warehousing and material handling operations. Second order impacts results indirectly from these logistics and take various forms. For instance, the increase in air freight and other traffic is resulting from global sourcing is first order effect, where as the increase in infrastructure, such as roads, buildings in sensitive areas, is a second order effect.
A large body of survey evidence has accumulated to show that companies around the world are keen to promote their green credentials through the management of logistics. It is difficult to gauge, however this reflects a true desire to help the environment by enhancing public relations.