IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlogis/v3y2019i1p3-d195982.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lean, Green and Clean? Sustainability Reporting in the Logistics Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Wim Lambrechts

    (Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management, Open University of the Netherlands, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands)

  • Semen Son-Turan

    (Department of Business Administration, MEF University, 34396 Sariyer, Istanbul, Turkey)

  • Lucinda Reis

    (Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management, Open University of the Netherlands, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands)

  • Janjaap Semeijn

    (Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management, Open University of the Netherlands, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Transport and logistics activities contribute heavily to global sustainability problems, yet the implementation of corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting in the sector lags behind. This paper aims to analyze sustainability reporting in the logistics sector, with focus on environmental, social and economic indicators. An extensive operationalization of sustainability indicators is used to examine and analyze the sustainability reports of 52 organizations in the logistics sector worldwide. Results show that the sector does not agree on the materiality of sustainability indicators. Furthermore, sustainability reporting seems to be incompatible with daily operations, leading to obscurity in reports. This contrast, between the necessary existence of organizations in the logistics sector and their undesirable environmental and social effects, calls for future research into how organizations are coping with this paradox. A viable way forward is needed in order to ensure materiality in the sectors’ efforts toward sustainability reporting.

Suggested Citation

  • Wim Lambrechts & Semen Son-Turan & Lucinda Reis & Janjaap Semeijn, 2019. "Lean, Green and Clean? Sustainability Reporting in the Logistics Sector," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlogis:v:3:y:2019:i:1:p:3-:d:195982
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/3/1/3/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/3/1/3/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joanne Meehan & David Bryde, 2011. "Sustainable procurement practice," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 94-106, February.
    2. Handfield, Robert & Walton, Steven V. & Sroufe, Robert & Melnyk, Steven A., 2002. "Applying environmental criteria to supplier assessment: A study in the application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 70-87, August.
    3. Bambang Sutopo & Sebastian Kot & Arum Kusumaningdyah Adiati & Lina Nur Ardila, 2018. "Sustainability Reporting and Value Relevance of Financial Statements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-14, March.
    4. Neu, D. & Warsame, H. & Pedwell, K., 1998. "Managing public impressions: environmental disclosures in annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 265-282, April.
    5. Demir, Emrah & Bektaş, Tolga & Laporte, Gilbert, 2014. "A review of recent research on green road freight transportation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(3), pages 775-793.
    6. Min-Chun Yu & Chia-Nan Wang & Nguyen-Nhu-Y Ho, 2016. "A Grey Forecasting Approach for the Sustainability Performance of Logistics Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-18, August.
    7. Aarcha Zenya & Øystein Nystad, 2018. "Assessing Corporate Sustainability with the Enterprise Sustainability Evaluation Tool (E-SET)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Robert G. Eccles & Michael P. Krzus & Jean Rogers & George Serafeim, 2012. "The Need for Sector-Specific Materiality and Sustainability Reporting Standards," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 24(2), pages 65-71, June.
    9. Sarkis, Joseph & Zhu, Qinghua & Lai, Kee-hung, 2011. "An organizational theoretic review of green supply chain management literature," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 1-15, March.
    10. KAUFMAN, Jonathan & McDONNELL, Katherine, 2016. "Community-Driven Operational Grievance Mechanisms," Business and Human Rights Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 127-132, January.
    11. Sebastian Kot, 2018. "Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Small and Medium Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-19, April.
    12. Carol A. Adams & Glen Whelan, 2009. "Conceptualising future change in corporate sustainability reporting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(1), pages 118-143, January.
    13. Giorgia Nigri & Mara Del Baldo, 2018. "Sustainability Reporting and Performance Measurement Systems: How do Small- and Medium-Sized Benefit Corporations Manage Integration?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, November.
    14. Claire Veit & Wim Lambrechts & Lieven Quintens & Janjaap Semeijn, 2018. "The Impact of Sustainable Sourcing on Customer Perceptions: Association by Guilt from Scandals in Local vs. Offshore Sourcing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    15. Gallego-Álvarez, Prof. Isabel & Ortas, Prof. Eduardo, 2017. "Corporate environmental sustainability reporting in the context of national cultures: A quantile regression approach," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 337-353.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mathew Kevin Bosi & Nelson Lajuni & Avnner Chardles Wellfren & Thien Sang Lim, 2022. "Sustainability Reporting through Environmental, Social, and Governance: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Luis Fonseca & Filipe Carvalho & Gilberto Santos, 2023. "Strategic CSR: Framework for Sustainability through Management Systems Standards—Implementing and Disclosing Sustainable Development Goals and Results," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-24, August.
    3. Jeng-Bang Wang & Guan-Hua Wang & Chung-Ya Ou, 2023. "The Key Factors for Sustainability Reporting Adoption in the Semiconductor Industry Using the Hybrid FRST-PSO Technique and Fuzzy DEMATEL Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, January.
    4. Tumo Paulus Kele & Mokheseng Makhetha, 2022. "Evaluation of the Effectiveness of and the Extent to Which Large and Medium Logistics Organisations Report on Social Sustainability—The Case of South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-26, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcela Marçal Alves Pinto & João Luiz Kovaleski & Rui Tadashi Yoshino & Regina Negri Pagani, 2019. "Knowledge and Technology Transfer Influencing the Process of Innovation in Green Supply Chain Management: A Multicriteria Model Based on the DEMATEL Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-33, June.
    2. Qian, Wei & Schaltegger, Stefan, 2017. "Revisiting carbon disclosure and performance: Legitimacy and management views," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 365-379.
    3. Brandenburg, Marcus & Govindan, Kannan & Sarkis, Joseph & Seuring, Stefan, 2014. "Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 299-312.
    4. Guo Li & Ming K. Lim & Zhaohua Wang, 2020. "Stakeholders, green manufacturing, and practice performance: empirical evidence from Chinese fashion businesses," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 290(1), pages 961-982, July.
    5. Kannan, Devika & Jabbour, Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa & Jabbour, Charbel José Chiappetta, 2014. "Selecting green suppliers based on GSCM practices: Using fuzzy TOPSIS applied to a Brazilian electronics company," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 432-447.
    6. Angus W. H. Yip & William Y. P. Yu, 2023. "The Quality of Environmental KPI Disclosure in ESG Reporting for SMEs in Hong Kong," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, February.
    7. Suzanne, Elodie & Absi, Nabil & Borodin, Valeria, 2020. "Towards circular economy in production planning: Challenges and opportunities," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(1), pages 168-190.
    8. Lidia Sanchez-Ruiz & Beatriz Blanco & Juan A. Marin-Garcia & Elsa Diez-Busto, 2020. "Scoping Review of Kaizen and Green Practices: State of the Art and Future Directions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-19, November.
    9. Wenwen Zhu & Zhiqiang Wang, 2018. "The Collaborative Networks and Thematic Trends of Research on Purchasing and Supply Management for Environmental Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-28, May.
    10. Jeffrey S. Harrison & Joyce van der Laan Smith, 2015. "Responsible Accounting for Stakeholders," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(7), pages 935-960, November.
    11. Md. Shajul Islam & Mohammad Rabiul Basher Rubel & Md. Mahedi Hasan, 2023. "Environmental and Social Performance of the Banking Industry in Bangladesh: Effect of Stakeholders’ Pressure and Green Practice Adoption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-24, May.
    12. Caterina Cavicchi & Chiara Oppi & Emidia Vagnoni, 2019. "On the feasibility of integrated reporting in healthcare: a context analysis starting from a management commentary," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(2), pages 345-371, June.
    13. Xiao-Ying Bao & Lei Zhang, 2018. "Green Procurement Relationships Development under Carbon Emissions Regulations: A Bi-Level Programming Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-14, October.
    14. Yen-Ching Chuang & Shu-Kung Hu & James J. H. Liou & Huai-Wei Lo, 2018. "Building a Decision Dashboard for Improving Green Supply Chain Management," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(05), pages 1363-1398, September.
    15. Grisard, Claudine & Annisette, Marcia & Graham, Cameron, 2020. "Performative agency and incremental change in a CSR context," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    16. Chen, Xu & Wang, Xiaojun, 2016. "Effects of carbon emission reduction policies on transportation mode selections with stochastic demand," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 196-205.
    17. Viorel Avram & Daniela Artemisa Calu & Valentin Florentin Dumitru & Tatiana Danescu, 2019. "The Clarity of the Information Regarding the Bioeconomy: An Analysis of the Reports Published by the Organizations," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 21(50), pages 1-41, February.
    18. Md Ali Arshad Chowdhury & Mohammad Morshedur Rahman & Mouri Dey & Syed Moudud-Ul-Huq & Sk Alamgir Hossain, 2023. "Perceived Pressures and Motivations for Environmental Disclosures: Role of Certification," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    19. Saghiri, Soroosh Sam & Mirzabeiki, Vahid, 2021. "Buyer-led environmental supplier development: Can suppliers really help it?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    20. van der Laan Smith, Joyce & Gouldman, Andrea L. & Tondkar, Rasoul H., 2014. "Does the adoption of IFRS affect corporate social disclosure in annual reports?," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 402-412.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlogis:v:3:y:2019:i:1:p:3-:d:195982. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.