Green logistics and ocean health: Global empirical evidence

• We examine a nexus between green logistics and ocean health. • We use diverse measures to reflect green logistics and ocean health. • We indicate the heterogeneous effects of green logistics on circularity. • Green logistics stimulate the path toward a sustainable ocean in the long term. This article empirically examines the impact of green logistics in relation to sustainable development and ocean health to demonstrate its role in promoting a sustainable blue economy. To assess the sustainability of the blue economy, we use six different metrics, including value added at the factor costs of the ocean health index, storage of carbon, provision of food, livelihoods and economies along the coast, natural products, and sense of place. By using different techniques like Panel-Corrected Standard Error (PCSE), Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), and Dynamic Fixed Effects (DFE) used in Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), it is evident from our estimation results that implementing green logistics is important for enhancing the long-term viability of the blue economy during the period 2010–2021. First, the development of GL will have a positive impact on the Ocean Health Index (OHI_Index), Carbon Storage (OHI_CS), Food Provision (OHI_FP), and Coastal Livelihoods and Economies (OHI_LE) when GL index scores increase to a certain threshold. Second, the results clearly demonstrate GL’s positive and significant impact on OHI dimensions in the long run, except for OHI_CS. Furthermore, the importance of green logistics measures, including the logistics capacity and quality score, international shipping score, and track and trace score, in improving the OHI index is highlighted. Specifically, at the 1% significance level, green logistics has the greatest influence on food provision and feeling of place, with estimated coefficients of 11.09 and 13.89, respectively. Our findings suggest a multifaceted strategy for governments and industry stakeholders to foster a sustainable and resilient blue economy throughout logistics operations.