Segregating The Main Dimensions Of The Green Supply Chain (Segregiranje Glavnih Dimenzija Zelenog Lanca Snabdevanja)

Within the majority of scientific studies, the supply chain is mostly treated as a unique, integral entity. That means that if we are talking about the green supply chain, the assumption is that all ecological initiatives have been applied in every segment, i.e. every dimension of that chain. Such a perception is not surprising since a great number of clients or other important strategic constituents also does not often make a difference between the company and its main suppliers/distributors within the chain. While this kind of perspective is generally desirable, since it indicates the existence of close cooperation between supply chain participants, the situation is much different in case if a certain problem of ecological nature was to occur. Due to the appearance of such a problem, the mentioned strategic constituents could pass over the responsibility for its occurrence onto a certain, leading company in the chain, without it having basically any, or at least not a direct responsibility for the occurred situation. That is why it is important to consider the key dimensions of one supply chain, i.e. how to make each of them green and what are their particular specifics. That is precisely the basic subject of analysis within this paper. Besides the introduction and conclusion, the very paper is divided into four parts. Within them we analyse green procurement, green production, green distribution and marketing, as well as reverse logistics, respectively, as the main dimensions of the green supply chain. The aim of the paper is to point out the necessity of regarding the supply chain activities as segregated, since only if all activities within all dimensions are green and adequately coordinated upstream and downstream, only that can be the condition of creating the competitive advantage.