Change Management for the Greening of Supply Chains

Abstract

Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) can reduce the ecological impact of industrial activity without sacrificing quality, cost, reliability, performance or energy utilization efficiency. The primary areas of emphasis have been quality, operations strategy, supply-chain management, product and process technologies, which are collectively beginning to contribute to a more systematic knowledge base. It is reasonable to expect that these research areas will continue to hold the greatest promise for advance in the short term. However, more integrative contributions are needed in the longer term, including intra- and inter-firm diffusion of best practices, green technology transfer and environmental performance measurement. One of the biggest challenges facing the field of GSCM is extending the historical ‘common wisdom’ about managing operations. Much research, management education and many practical applications have focused on buffering the operations function from external influences, including the natural environment, in order to improve efficiencies, reduce cost and increase quality. When the natural environment is considered, it is typically recognized or modelled as an external constraint, requiring operations to work within prescribed limits. Our aim in this paper is to investigate how to use the tools of change management for the greening of supply chains.