Drivers and Obstacles for Creating Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Operations

Environmental deterioration, growing concerns regarding climate change, and governmental rules and regulations introduced a relatively new concept to common industry practices: sustainable supply chain management.This study will explore how sustainability will be integrated into the supply chain processes using the triple bottom line approach.Introducing sustainability to the supply chain initiatives is a result of some key drivers.In addition to the drivers of sustainable supply chain, there are some obstacles that create challenges for proper integration of eco-friendly systems to the supply chain processes.In order to analyze the drivers and obstacles of environmentally benign supply chain practices, an industrial survey was conducted.According to the research supported by the survey responses, there are four major drivers that mainly contribute to the successful adoption of sustainability into existing supply chains.The results highlight the major drivers and barriers that medium sized businesses might face when making sustainable and ecological progress an actuality in their current supply chain operations.