Sustainable Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Principles and practices for sustainable operations and management, Second Edition PDF by David B Grant, Alexander Trautrims

CONTENTS

Introduction
This second edition of our book discusses sustainability issues pertaining to logistics and supply chain management (SCM), and is different from other books as it takes a holistic view across the supply chain from point of origin through point of consumption and back within the reverse logistics chain.

Logistics and supply chain activities permeate almost every aspect of our lives and thus their ability to impact the natural environment is of significant importance. This edition includes updated information and cases, as well as supplementary materials available at the Kogan Page website.

The objective of this book is to introduce principles and practices that facilitate responsible SCM and sustainable logistics operations in a holistic manner and consider factors of logistics and SCM affecting the natural environment beyond the usual factors of road miles, fuel use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that have been well discussed in freight transportation; see for example Green Logistics: Improving the environmental sustainability of logistics by McKinnon et al (2015), which is a good complement to this book. As an example of wider factors, globalization of business has meant that many products are not manufactured in national markets anymore; they are outsourced and manufactured in lesser-developed countries, particularly in Asia, and then shipped all around the world. How then does a national firm ensure sustainability in its global supply chain? Further, most seasonal fresh food such as fruit and vegetables is now available all year round due to sourcing in foreign markets or the use of sophisticated chilled storage and transport to prevent premature spoiling or ageing. So should consumer markets return to more seasonal goods to reduce the effects on the environment of continuous product availability?

The development of these types of activities and factors has increased the effects that logistics and SCM have on the natural environment. Accordingly, logistics and supply chain strategies and operations are discussed in this book in the context of raising awareness of, and shifting an emphasis to, responsible, ethical and sustainable practices. It is important for firms, consumers and societies to do so and be proactive in considering these issues. Otherwise, legislation may emerge to limit the impact of logistics and SCM on the environment, which may be more draconian than these three stakeholders would desire.

For example, the UK government considered and then abandoned a scheme of personal or individual ‘carbon credits’ in 2008 (BBC News, 2008). Under the scheme, individuals would have an annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emission limit for fuel and energy use, which they could only exceed by buying credits in a secondary carbon-trading market from those who were under limit. The scheme was considered more progressive than taxation, as it would redistribute wealth from rich to poor, transparent and easy for everyone to understand, and fair, as everyone would get the same annual CO2 limit. However, the government’s initial studies found that the cost of introducing the scheme would be between £700 million and £2 billion, plus a further £1–2 billion a year to operate. There were also practical difficulties identified in deciding how to set annual limits, taking into account a person’s age, location, health and activities such as business and personal travel. From a different sustainability perspective, many members of parliament admitted that the public were likely to be opposed to the scheme, but urged the government to be courageous in going ahead with it. With a general election less than two years away, the government decided to discontinue further tax-payer-funded research on the scheme while noting that the concept of personal carbon limits and trading had not been completely abandoned.