Abstract
Abstract
A concept of green logistics originated in the 80s. Green logistics concept implies a set of logistics approaches and systems, which apply advanced equipment and technologies with the help of which it is possible to minimize damage to the environment during logistical operations. The concept has originated from two words. The first word is logistics, which is a key to a new transportation system that applies modern technologies to justify the second part of the concept. The major purpose of logistics, which is classified as green, consists in taking care of the environment. Today, it is a highly important goal because, in connection with the consumers attitude towards natural resources, exhaust gases, and uncontrolled pollution by substances and production waste produced and used during production, the anthropogenic load increases rapidly and brings the natural environment to the critical state. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize a negative impact on the environment; for this, all spheres of human activity should be involved, including logistics. In this regard, the topic of green logistics is extremely significant. The purpose of the current paper is to study the concept of green logistics and its further development in future.
Keywords: logistics, green, reverse, environment, pollution
Green Logistics
Introduction
The XXI century is a time of widely developed trade, globalization, and high speeds. At the same time, nowadays, the society is highly interested in the issue of environmental protection. This problem is equally important for the public and business areas. Logistics is a direction of management, and it is not an exception. Today, it is impossible to imagine the activity of economic entities without logistical processes. Logistics is frequently perceived as a set of actions, the goals of which consist in the maximization of profits and the minimization of costs. Besides, many companies today pay close attention to the minimization of the negative impacts on the environment. The increased attention of companies to a green aspect of the logistics operations is connected to such trends as increased demand for environmental specialists, increased consumer awareness, the growing significance of factors of environmental protection and maintenance, as well as the growing political regulation and influence in this direction. A term green logistics denotes strategies and practices of supply chain management, which reduce the resource and environmental impact of the flows distribution. Green logistics can be defined as an organizational activity that addresses environmental issues in supply chains to improve environmental performance in cooperation with customers and suppliers. The actions of green logistics involve the measurement of the environmental effect of various distribution strategies, reduction of the resource costs of logistics, the reduction of waste, and control over processing. In the past, companies focused on their logistics operations in packaging, warehousing, material handling, traffic management, and data collection to satisfy customers requirements at minimum cost, but today, the environment becomes a great problem and is perceived as a factor affecting the value of commodity flows.
Discussions
History of the Concept
The creation and exploitation of highly efficient resource-saving technologies, ensuring the production of high-quality and environmentally safe products with optimum energy intensity and material consumption, rapid development of innovative resource-saving technologies, and further improvement of existing technologies are the most significant factors in the implementation of the transition to steady development (McKinnon, Browne, Whiteing, & Piecyk, 2015). Resource saving in production or industry is a purposeful combination of different educational, research, economic, trading, and managerial activities. It is performed based on the most complete application of information and intellectual resources of the society to ensure the optimal unit costs of all types of labor, material, and natural resources (McKinnon et al., 2015). The resources are necessary for the release of the particular type of products at the required time, in compliance with the conditions of international and national legislation, as well as environmental protection from pollution. Resource-saving environmentally friendly systems are an objective factor of steady development (McKinnon et al., 2015). To implement the concept of sustainable development in practice, the solution of tasks of economic and environmental optimization, and analysis of the effect of industrial companies on the environment are of the great importance. Methods of economic and environmental optimization of companies allow defining the optimal permissible level of impact of liquid and gas emissions, as well as solid waste of enterprises on different natural systems, such as lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and forests with restrictions on financing environmental protection measures.
Currently, a new scientific direction in industrial logistics is developing green logistics. It studies methods of designing innovative products with the optimal material consumption and methods for developing resource-saving production technologies and industries. German scientist Ervin M?ller initiated the development of green logistics in 1989 (McKinnon et al., 2015). The scientist paid significant attention to logistics, mentioning the strong connection between logistics, natural resources, and environmental protection. German scientists continued their research and studied the connection between the environment and business. Researchers from Slovenia explored the potential positive impact of the standards application, when investing in environmentally friendly transport work (McKinnon et al., 2015). The researchers traced the relationship between logistics, the effectiveness of supply chain, and compliance with quality standards. Scientists paid particular attention to the ISO 14001 standard, as an efficient instrument for increasing the sustainability of logistics and transport services (McKinnon et al., 2015). Romanian researchers generalized the experience of green logistics solutions for some agglomerated states and developed a business plan for the implementation of the green logistics principles. In such a way, the actions of these scientists have laid the foundation for the development of green logistics throughout the world.
In the 1990s, on the initiative of the Clinton administration, the U.S. EPA Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics organized activities under the Green Chemistry Program. The cooperation between the development of the U.S. Agency for Environmental Protection and technologies of sustainability resulted in the appearance of the concept of green logistics that became a philosophy (McKinnon et al., 2015). Whereas various international and national programs are aimed at the prevention of pollution and solution of environmental problems, green logistics makes an emphasis on preventing pollution in the early stages of implementing and planning production processes. According to the data of Green Trends Survey, 59% of business structures have calculated that the application of green technologies by enterprises in their logistic activities serves as a crucial factor in the struggle for more contracts and customers (McKinnon et al., 2015). Therefore, green logistics is regarded as one of the most relevant aspects these days.
It is important to mention that the beginning of green logistics in terms of the implementation of aspects of steady development was laid back in the middle of the 1980s, with the appearance of the universal responsibility concept. In contrast to the general theory of organization, this concept considers the social component of logistics (McKinnon et al., 2015). This fact indicates a sufficient potential for applying logistics in solving social problems that include a low level of environmental culture of personnel, the consumption growth, provision of the necessary level of safety and work comfort, as well as environmental problems (McKinnon et al., 2015). In fact, it has become clear that over the past decade, logistics has a great potential for conducting environmental monitoring of processes for the recycling of goods, transport systems, packaging materials used, implementation of resource-saving processes, as well as control and reduction of pollution.
The Essence of Green Logistics
Traditionally, logistics include implementation, planning, and control of placement and movement of goods and people within the economic system to achieve certain purposes. The major function of logistics consists in the coordination of all types of logistics activities to satisfy the needs of customers with minimal costs (Zhang, Van Hui, & Chen, 2013). In turn, companies, engaged in green logistics, tend to pay more attention to external costs connected with climate changes, soil, water, and air pollution to achieve a stable balance between society, environment, and economy (Zhang et al., 2013). Logistics has a great potential for the implementation of environmental control of transport systems, packaging materials, processes for the recycling of products, minimization and control of pollution, processes of resources conservation, and the implementation of energy.
In the framework of the concept of steady development, modern logistics is considered as an extremely efficient approach to managing resources and energy flows with the aim to reduce the economic and environmental damages to the external environment, and to ensure there is a productive innovative development of production. The aim of green logistics consists in the minimization of losses connected with the inefficiency of the production process, effective application of existing capacities, development and implementation of innovative methods of management, and organization of production processes (McKinnon et al., 2015). Besides, green logistics is intended to efficiently use raw materials and minimize impacts on the environment.
The concept of green logistics refers to the methods of organization of the supply chain, which contributes to the reduction in environmental and energy environmental components in terms of freight. Green logistics focuses on loading and unloading materials, environmentally friendly transportation, recyclable packaging, and waste disposal (Swami & Shah, 2013). Despite the fact that green logistics covers different aspects of logistics activities, enterprises operating on these principles can apply several at once or focus on one of them. Along with green logistics, a concept of reverse logistics is used. In reverse logistics, there is a particular flow of products, which moves back from the consumer to an earlier element in the supply chain (Swami & Shah, 2013). It is obvious that the reduction of the waste that it implies means that reverse logistics should be included in green logistics. These days, a term green logistics is frequently used interchangeably with the term reverse logistics (Swami & Shah, 2013). Nevertheless, in contradistinction to reverse logistics, green summarizes the activities foremost based on environmental considerations. The major difference consists in the fact that reverse logistics focuses on increasing costs and saving money with the help of reselling and re-using materials to recover lower operating costs and lost profits. In turn, green logistics is engaged in the issues of recycling and utilization of resources, and transportation (Swami & Shah, 2013). The most important environmental issues in green logistics include the use and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste, and the repeated consumption of non-renewable natural resources. Thereby, it is possible to identify the major indicators, which allow measuring the harmful effects of transport on the environment, the reduction in energy consumption, as well as the reduction in the materials usage.
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Green logistics includes all attempts to minimize and measure the effects of logistics activities on the environment. Logistic activities involve actions, associated with reverse and direct flows of products, services, and information between the point of consumption and the point of departure (McKinnon et al., 2015). The most important purpose of this process consists in the creation of sustainable market value of the enterprise, grounded on the balance of environmental and economic efficiency (McKinnon et al., 2015). The creation and application of a specific plan of material management in developed states raises competition and reduces the cost of transportation. Moreover, it also helps to reduce environmental pollution that has an impact on the preservation of the state budget and improvement of the quality of life of the state’s population (McKinnon et al., 2015). There are several principles of green logistics. These principles include rational use of natural resources, rational and full use of company’s resources, and environmentally safe and economically justified warehousing and transportation of material resources. Other important principle includes minimal use and packaging of raw materials, which are not subject to safe disposal and recycling. On the contrary, there should be the maximum usage of industrial waste and packaging as recyclable materials or their environmentally safe disposal. One more principle is the introduction of innovative technologies with the purpose to reduce the burden on the environment (McKinnon et al., 2015). However, it will be rather difficult to achieve without the environmental awareness and responsibility of the personnel. In such a way, when people use green logistics in practice, they receive an opportunity to solve a problem of global warming that occupies the minds of leading politicians and scientists because of an extremely negative effect on the people’s way of life.
The major technologies for reducing a negative anthropogenic effect on the environment include the reduction of distance in the transportation of goods at all stages of the supply chain, application of modern environmentally friendly energy-saving cars, and the increased usage of local resources, meaning the reduction of harmful emissions and fuel costs into the atmosphere. Besides, the optimization of the transport network can bring the enterprise additional advantages improvement of the image, reduction of the load on the environment, and reduction of costs throughout the supply chain (Maurer, Ernst, & Friedrich, 2015). A sphere of green logistics attributes the minimization of thermal energy costs, while ensuring safety, loading, and unloading of goods, environmental projects for the construction of warehouses, applying environmentally friendly building materials and energy-saving technologies, and the increase of the cars carrying capacity. In addition, this sphere includes multi-turn packaging and provision of utilization processes in the form of reverse supply chains (Maurer et al., 2015). The most significant green technologies in logistics are the decrease of inventories to reduce the necessity of storage space, selection of suppliers of raw materials with the least expenditure of non-renewable resources, and reduction of paperwork (Maurer et al., 2015). Other technologies used in green logistics include optimization of cargo transportation routes to reduce emissions of harmful gases, exclusion of intermediate points of handling and storage of goods from the logistics chain, and reduction of road transport and transition to environmentally friendly modes of transport, such as rail, water, and sea (Maurer et al., 2015). When applying these technologies in logistics, companies can bring great benefit to the environment.
It is possible to distinguish four major factors that affect green logistics. These factors include a company, a social and political order, and an attitude of customers. From the consumer’s point of view, there are particular requirements to services and products in the ecological aspect (McKinnon et al., 2015). With especially high environmental awareness, clients may require products to be delivered by environmentally friendly cars or that, when delivered, the emissions are minimized thus forcing suppliers to switch to green solutions in logistics (McKinnon et al., 2015). In turn, several factors influence the efficiency of green logistics functioning. Firstly, these are the ecological norms and the pressure of stakeholders, such as organizations that work in the field of ecology and alternative energy, for instance, Greenpeace (McKinnon et al., 2015). Another factor is in the industrial sector and geographical location. In addition, such factors as the size of the company, features of personnel management and labor resources, as well a position in the value chain also have an impact on the effectiveness of the functioning of green logistics.
Difficulties of Transition to Green Logistics
It is necessary to mention that logistic principles frequently come into contradiction with measures to mitigate harms caused by the environment. Every manufacturer of services or goods seeks to build the logistics system according to the Door-to-door and Just-in-time approaches (McKinnon et al., 2015). The effectiveness of the distribution system should be raised with the help of reduction in time management of a certain commodity flow. Nonetheless, it is necessary to pay particular attention to reliability, striving for 100% probability of fulfillment of the planned delivery and complete safety of the delivered goods, as this factor serves as the basis for long-term relations with the client (McKinnon et al., 2015). The logistics and transport departments are to resort to the application of the most reliable and flexible modes of transport to solve these two tasks. However, this transport has the most noticeable negative effect on the environment. One more example of the divergence of logistics principles with the principles of environmental protection is a tendency to reduce insurance stocks (McKinnon et al., 2015). In the process of attaining this goal, there is a redistribution of loads from warehouses to the transport component. The irreversible growth in the usage of transport results in new congestion on the roads and increase in the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere (McKinnon et al., 2015). In such a way, it is necessary to make a conclusion that the implementation of the functioning of green logistics is not simple because, in many respects, the essence of logistics contradicts the requirements for maintaining and protecting the environment.
Companies that have intentions to become socially responsible and green face a number of difficulties. Firstly, it is a high level of costs (Ozment & Keller, 2011). Minimization of environmental damage is associated directly with costly research and the necessity to buy environmental protection equipment, the cost of which is high even for the most socially responsible entrepreneurs. Another difficulty is a considerable deficit of professionals in this sphere (Ozment & Keller, 2011). Based on the above circumstances, it is possible to understand why there are not many green and socially responsible companies. However, the companies that take measures to decrease a level of damage can significantly increase their reputation.
Examples of International Experience in Implementing Principles of Green Logistics
Transnational companies are the major subjects of the world economic relations of the commodity exchange processes. In the constant entropy of the world economy, TNCs do not always apply appropriate and proper instruments. The proficiency to navigate in different tools and their appropriate application is a highly important advantage of the company on the world stage (Maurer et al., 2015). Logistics is one of the most relevant instruments in the activities of TNCs. Many companies use green logistics today, as it allows companies to get contracts and avoid a global and impending environmental catastrophe.
Paying particular attention to innovations and stimulating their development and the emergence, companies seek for a continuous process of improving the performance of their activities, grounded on the application of logistics principles. There are many examples of these processes around the world. The express delivery company DHL launched the GoGreen service. The essence of this service consists in the fact that DHL calculates the amount of CO2 emissions during the transportation of every cargo from the time it is received to the time of its delivery to the recipient (Maurer et al., 2015). The client can pay additional 3% from the standard rates and the delivery company invests the collected money in programs of climate protection worldwide (Maurer et al., 2015). For the first time in the European railway industry, the German carrier Deutsche Bahn Schenker Rail proposed a method of transportation of goods that totally excludes the release of carbon dioxide (Maurer et al., 2015). In the framework of the Eco Plus project, the company receives electricity for its electric locomotives from renewable energy sources. As a part of its climate protection program, Deutsche Bahn wants to reduce emissions of CO2 from its operations around the world by 20% by 2020 in comparison with 2006 operations (Maurer et al., 2015).
The Japanese shipping company, K Line, has launched a computer system on particular vessels. Based on constant monitoring of hydrographic and weather conditions, the system optimizes the engine performance that results in the reduction in dangerous emissions to the atmosphere. In the logistics center of Toyota in Belgium, two wind turbines appeared in 2013 (Maurer et al., 2015). Every turbine generates 3 MW of electric power and their annual capacity includes 17.1 MW / h (Maurer et al., 2015). Besides, factories of Toyota in France and the United Kingdom installed solar panels for power generation. The express delivery operator, UPS, purchased more than 100 hybrid cars that consume 66,000 gallons of fuel per year (35%) less than cars with an internal combustion engine (Maurer et al., 2015). There are also less emissions of CO2. A size of saved emissions is equivalent to the volume of exhausts that falls on 128 cars per year. During the construction of the Nord Stream, approximately 60 million Euros were saved because of the green logistics concept (Maurer et al., 2015). The Nord Stream became the most environmentally friendly and secure way of transporting gas. Experts claim that the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere during 50 years of operation of the gas pipeline will amount to 200 million tons (Maurer et al., 2015). In such a way, in spite of a number of differences, existing in the principles of logistics and environmental care, as well as certain difficulties arising in the realities of the organization of green companies, such conscious enterprises exist. In addition, their activities in this direction provide the first successful results. Countries should further develop various measures to attract companies to become involved in socially responsible activities with the help of different benefits, as it will motivate the transition to green supply chains (Maurer et al., 2015). In turn, it will increase the supply of personnel and the necessary equipment in the sphere of green logistics.
New Solutions to the Problem
Around the world, different regulatory acts are introduced, actively limiting the release of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Indeed, regulation is an extremely significant aspect that will remain the major mover for the promotion of green logistics in future. It is necessary to note the economic incentives for companies, as they are the most operative and efficacious instruments meant to encourage the positive changes in logistics technologies (McKinnon et al., 2015). Political support is the major driver that will allow modernizing the environmental field in the sphere of logistics and, thus, approaching the vector of sustainable development (McKinnon et al., 2015). The majority of consumers are of the opinion that political actions on the part of the country will have an exceptional impact in combating climate change. Governments, which intend to solve climate change, apply different policies to achieve their goals in emissions reduction (McKinnon et al., 2015). In such a way, it is necessary to continue using the tools of stimulating companies to switch to environmental technologies in the field of logistics and related fields and find methods that are more effective.
In the future, the development of green technologies in logistics should be grounded on the conformity of transport with modern international requirements and follow the path of integrated application and development of operational and constructive measures. For instance, by 2020, the effectiveness of internal combustion engines will increase by 54% and, thus, less fuel will be required for a vehicle (McKinnon et al., 2015). Consequently, emissions to the atmosphere from road transport will also decrease.
Today, the majority of cars still run on hydrocarbon fuel. Thus, it seems more reasonable to introduce substitutes for traditional fuel sources and one of the possible alternatives suggests using ethyl alcohol. The substance can be easily obtained from simple sugars by the reaction of alcoholic fermentation under anaerobic conditions (McKinnon et al., 2015). It is also possible to use plants, which contain starch-polysaccharide that is easy to decompose into sugars. These plants include cereals, such as sugar sorghum, corn, wheat, as well as yams, and potatoes. The question is about the economic benefits, requiring large energy expenditures for processing alcohol from the fermented product. For replacement of diesel fuel, it is possible to use fuel watered ethanol, pure ethanol, and a mixture of ethanol-diesel fuel (McKinnon et al., 2015). This mixture is most promising for application in future. Today, strains and species of microorganisms, operating at a temperature of 65–75 C, have been developed and it is possible to obtain ethyl alcohol and other products from practically all types of organic waste from timber and agriculture industry. The world is currently working on the reduction of energy costs in receiving ethanol one of the most environmentally friendly types of fuel.
A promising direction in green logistics is the usage of lower alcohols of high-octane tert-Amyl methyl ether instead of traditional petroleum fuels. Additions of 7–15% of esters to motor gasoline allow abandoning tetraethyl lead. Reduction of aromatic hydrocarbons and sulfur in diesel fuel decreases the smokiness of exhaust gases by approximately 30% (McKinnon et al., 2015). One more direction of green technologies application in logistics consists in the addition of water to fuel with the purpose to receive water-fuel emulsions. During the combustion of such emulsions, being a catalyst for chemical flame reactions and a source of microexplosions in the combustion zone, water causes the decrease in the temperature of gases and an intensification of the mixture formation (McKinnon et al., 2015). It allows reducing emissions of harmful substances.
A significant place in green logistics belongs to the usage of maintenance of modern diagnostic instruments and methods in the technological process. For diesel engines, a diagnostic method, grounded on the determination of the transformation in the complex of parameters of exhaust gases, is highly promising in future (McKinnon et al., 2015). This method simultaneously allows to monitor the technical condition of diesel systems and engines, as well as its environmental performance. For gasoline engines, there is a method for direct control of the combustion process of the fuel-air mixture in the working cavities of cylinders with the application of electronic and fiber-optic technologies (McKinnon et al., 2015). The use of a set of optoelectronic equipment allows perfecting the quality of electrical equipment of the engine and power supply thus optimizing the combustion process and achieving the reduction in emissions of toxic components into the atmosphere. The development of these methods will allow improving the natural environment in the future.
Conclusion
The fast development of the processes of economic integration and division of labor is the reason why the world community together with the world economic entities pays particular attention to the issues of environmental preservation. This aspect is highly important in the model of safe and the sustainable development of society. With its help, people can provide favorable living conditions for the current and future generations. Today, it is impossible to imagine the activities of the world economic entities without logistical processes that are organized at the global level. Any business unit is not self-sufficient and, thus, every company needs resources from outside. In fact, logistical operations serve as an essential part of the internal process of each enterprise. Steady development includes social, ecological, and economic components. The environment is considered to be the major component in the steady development model, without which any favorable development paths are not possible. In such a way, when the world society solved the question of greening the logistics operations of economic entities, it will step forward along the path of safe and sustainable development. The above confirms that green logistics is one of the most important parts of sustainable development of society. Therefore, it is essential to continue to apply the tools of stimulating companies to transfer to environmental technologies in the field of logistics and related areas. It is also necessary to find more efficient methods, which are not grounded only on economic benefits but on the awareness of every member of the world community regarding the significance of the transition to steady development. It is imperative to understand that transition to the given model is impossible without modernization of such a significant sphere as logistics. This article was written by Alik Saia . More my works you can see here https://prime-essay.net/
