A Review of Research on Green Logistics Distribution Practices

Abstract

Due to increased focus on environmental pollution through transport activities, organizations, transport providers and governments have taken various initiatives towards reducing the environmental impact of transport and logistics related activities. Hence vehicles have become more environmental friendly than in the past but environmental measures have failed to keep pace with growing transport volumes. Therefore an expansion of avenues to reduce the environmental effect is necessary. The concept of green logistics is a part of reducing the environmental impact of organisations. Therefore it is important to identify the green logistics distribution practices taken into consideration by researchers. Also the effectiveness of these practices and issues/barriers in implementation should be identified. It is only then that further research can be undertaken to give solutions and focus on new research avenues. This research focuses on, what aspects have research on green logistics distribution practices been conducted with the objectives of identifying the green logistics distribution practices researched on, their effectiveness and issues/barriers related. This research was conducted as a content analysis. A total of thirty research papers were considered as a limited amount of research is found which specifically focuses on green logistics distribution practices. The keywords ‘Green logistics distribution practices’ was used to select the suitable research articles through the internet database. A critical analysis of the papers was done to identify the state of research on green logistics distribution practices. The findings suggest that environmental friendly logistics structures are characterised by fewer movements, less handling, shorter transportation distances, more direct shipping routes and better utilisation of vehicles. Strategies related to modal shift, hybrid fuel technology, optimisation of routes, proper network design, reverse logistics and green transport procurement have been identified as effective strategies. Barriers have been mainly identified for electric vehicles including the cost of using such vehicles, the purchasing of them and operational problems.