Green & Sustainable Logistics : A Comparative Study between European Union and South Asian Region
Shovan, Sabyasachi (2021)
2021
Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2021-04-21
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104062833
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104062833
Tiivistelmä
In our globalized world, almost everyone has become a potential buyer, and all companies in all industrial sectors have become a potential supplier of either a good or a service. As a result, supply chain management is becoming complex, and sensitive as the demand from customers is always fluctuating. A supply chain cannot maintain its value to customers if the product or service is not reached on proper time. Therefore, logistics is the most crucial element of the supply chain. The logistics operation in sea, road, and air developed a negative consequence for the environment due to greenhouse gas emission, traffic congestion, noise pollution, large scale fossil fuel usage, and wastage of resources. Therefore, ensuring green and sustainable logistics is an absolute necessity to protect the next generation and to ensure the harmony between society, economy, and environment.
Despite the customer awareness, requirement, and encouragement from the government, the development and transformation of logistics operation into a green and sustainable one is far from reality in many regions. The reason can be attributed to the fact that the benefits of green and sustainable logistics are poorly communicated to companies, lack of government policy and monitoring, and proper subsidiaries to encourage companies to invest on green and sustainable logistics. Additionally, there is lack of logistics literature that explicitly sorts out the reason for superior performance of some countries in the logistics performance index, the proven benefits of green practices in logistics adapted by different countries, and a guideline how to adapt and implement those green practices.
The thesis identified the reasons that successfully facilitated the transition of logistics in the EU. The thesis draws attention to the existing green practices in logistics in both macro, and micro levels that ensure sustainability for the EU. The thesis identified that clear division of responsibilities in public, and private sector as well as collaboration between the two as the prime reasons for the superior performance of the EU region. At the same time, the drawbacks of the SAARC region in logistics operation are identified in all dimensions like administrative, management, operation, and technology. The study identified areas of improvement such as public private cooperation, seamless integration, development of regional standards, integrating third party logistics providers, developing multimodal transport, and warehousing integration. The overall study identified that both existing literature and logistics professionals from SAARC member states think major problems exist in macro level in SAARC which need to be rectified to make a green and sustainable logistics. Therefore, an action plan for short, medium to long term is developed for the SAARC region.
The contribution of the research is to develop an extensive comparative study between EU and SAARC. The execution of the research has identified some possibilities of future research. The research was conducted on a big scale. Therefore, targeting a particular industrial sector in the EU, and identifying the macro, and micro level strategies in the EU region that are implemented and comparing them with other regions will be something fruitful to develop an action plan, and strategy.
Despite the customer awareness, requirement, and encouragement from the government, the development and transformation of logistics operation into a green and sustainable one is far from reality in many regions. The reason can be attributed to the fact that the benefits of green and sustainable logistics are poorly communicated to companies, lack of government policy and monitoring, and proper subsidiaries to encourage companies to invest on green and sustainable logistics. Additionally, there is lack of logistics literature that explicitly sorts out the reason for superior performance of some countries in the logistics performance index, the proven benefits of green practices in logistics adapted by different countries, and a guideline how to adapt and implement those green practices.
The thesis identified the reasons that successfully facilitated the transition of logistics in the EU. The thesis draws attention to the existing green practices in logistics in both macro, and micro levels that ensure sustainability for the EU. The thesis identified that clear division of responsibilities in public, and private sector as well as collaboration between the two as the prime reasons for the superior performance of the EU region. At the same time, the drawbacks of the SAARC region in logistics operation are identified in all dimensions like administrative, management, operation, and technology. The study identified areas of improvement such as public private cooperation, seamless integration, development of regional standards, integrating third party logistics providers, developing multimodal transport, and warehousing integration. The overall study identified that both existing literature and logistics professionals from SAARC member states think major problems exist in macro level in SAARC which need to be rectified to make a green and sustainable logistics. Therefore, an action plan for short, medium to long term is developed for the SAARC region.
The contribution of the research is to develop an extensive comparative study between EU and SAARC. The execution of the research has identified some possibilities of future research. The research was conducted on a big scale. Therefore, targeting a particular industrial sector in the EU, and identifying the macro, and micro level strategies in the EU region that are implemented and comparing them with other regions will be something fruitful to develop an action plan, and strategy.