Role of green policy on sustainable supply chain management

Purpose – Green supply chain management (GSCM) has become the driver of sustainable strategy. This topic has been gaining increasing attention within both academia and industry for making the industry competitive. With the ever increasing demand for reducing carbon foot prints and greenhouse gas emission, there is a need to study the various parameters and drivers of sustainable development, especially in supply chain management. The need for developing the sustainable model including the drivers of sustainability needs to be designed. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Using resource-based theory and value chain analysis; the authors have developed a model for sustainable strategy. The data were collected and analyzed to find the key drivers of sustainability. The data were analyzed with the help of regression and correlation analysis. Findings – After providing a background discussion on GSCM, the authors categorize and review recent GSCM literature under three broad categories, with a special emphasis on investigation of adoption, diffusion, and outcomes of GSCM practices. Within this review framework, the authors also identified GSCM research questions that are worthy of investigation. The study suggests that the main drivers of GSCM include the environmental policy and the green human resource management by providing them training for adopting sustainability practices. Besides this, another key driver is the sustainability criteria in supplier selection which was found to be enhancing the outcomes of sustainability. Research limitations/implications – The model suggests that we need to have management support for implementing the sustainability strategy in the organization. Practical implications – The study guides the managers for implementing sustainable supply chain management practices in the organization. Social implications – The model including the environment policy (adoption), green human resource management (diffusion), green technology (diffusion), and GSCM. Originality/value – Additional organizational theories which are considered valuable for future GSCM research are also identified with a conclusion for this review.