Consideration of supply chain environmental impacts during packaging development: theory versus practice
Författare
Summary, in English
Design/methodology/approach: The research approach is explorative and based on nine cases (26 semi-structured interviews) in the food and manufacturing industries in Sweden. Data were collected from three managerial perspectives: the packaging manager’s, the logistics manager’s, and the environmental manager’s.
Findings: The findings indicate that companies have knowledge about the relationship between packaging design and environmental impacts in supply chains. They also commonly apply a variety of green packaging approaches. Companies seem, however, to lack guidance on how to handle potential trade-offs and are unable to fully utilize the economic and environmental benefits of green packaging approaches due to internal and external barriers.
Research limitations/implications: The study analyses packaging development practices at a limited number of companies in the Swedish manufacturing and food industry. Based on the findings, propositions are provided. Future research could test these propositions.
Practical implications: The study suggests a number of concrete opportunities on how companies can overcome some of the experienced barriers. The analytical framework provides practitioners with a structured overview of packaging approaches that can reduce environmental impacts along the supply chain.
Social implications: The results indicate that companies seem to focus on green packaging approaches that entail clear economic benefits, which is sub-optimal from a societal perspective.
Original/value: This research provides empirical data on how theoretical concepts about green packaging development are applied in industry.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2014
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
164-181
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Proceedings of the 26th Nofoma Conference
Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag
Förlag
The Nordic Logistics Research Network (Nofoma)
Ämne
- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
- Other Mechanical Engineering
Nyckelord
- Packaging Development
- Green Packaging
- Green Logistics
- Case Study
- Supply Chain Environmental Impact
Conference name
26th Annual NOFOMA Conference, 2014
Conference date
2014-06-11 - 2014-06-13
Conference place
Copenhagen, Denmark
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISBN: 978-87-997433-0-8