The value adding role of green logistics in transport companies

Abstract: The requirement to decrease the impact of business logistics activities on the environment is constantly increasing. A number of workshops organised by the University of Hull involving academics and practitioners in supply chain management to examine the challenges of the next generation supply chains, showed that environmental issues along with cost effectiveness is always the major and most imminent concern identified. Green logistics refers to “attempts to measure and minimise the ecological impact of logistics activities” (Reverse Logistics Executive Council, 2010). These activities include green purchasing, green material management and manufacturing, green distribution, warehousing and marketing, as well as reverse logistics (Hervani, Helms & Sarkis, 2005). The overall objective of green logistics is to reduce impact on the environment, lower production cost, and improve product value. Green logistics can also lead to decrease the inventory level, reduce logistics cost, increase revenue and profit, improve service, enrich information for reverse logistics, and enhance company image (Murphy, Poist & Braunschweig, 1995). The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and analyse how and if companies can add value to their firm by implementing “green logistics” to their transportations activities, thus achieving a competitive advantage. The research samples are small trucking firms located in South Sweden, and were chosen in order to understand the value of green logistics for small trucking firms. The method used to achieve the objective of this dissertation is an inductive research approach. The empirical data was collected through a semi-structured interview guide, where four companies within in the transport industry were interviewed. The collected data was then compared with the theoretical review and analysed.