Green supply chain management: pressures, practices and performance within the Chinese automobile industry

Published Date
2007, Vol.15(11):1041–1052, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.05.021
The Automobile Industry & Sustainability

Author 

• Qinghua Zhu ^a,,
 
• Joseph Sarkis ^b,1,
 
• Kee-hung Lai ^c,2,

• aInstitute for Eco-planning and Development, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province 116024, P.R. China
• bGraduate School of Management, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610-1477, USA
• cDepartment of Logistics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Accepted 28 May 2006. Available online 11 September 2006. 

Abstract

Increasing pressures from a variety of directions have caused the Chinese automobile supply chain managers to consider and initiate implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices to improve both their economic and environmental performance. Expanding on some earlier work investigating general GSCM practices in China, this paper explores the GSCM pressures/drivers (motivators), initiatives and performance of the automotive supply chain using an empirical analysis of 89 automotive enterprises within China. The results show that the Chinese automobile supply chain enterprises have experienced high and increasing regulatory and market pressures and at the same time have strong internal drivers for GSCM practice adoption. However, their GSCM implementation, especially with consideration of external relationships, is poor. Therefore, GSCM implementation has only slightly improved environmental and operational performance, and has not resulted in significant economic performance improvement. In furthering this analysis we investigate one specific organization in this supply chain, the Dalian Diesel Engine Plant, and how this pioneering company has addressed the issues identified by the broader empirical analysis.

Keywords

Environmental sustainability

Green supply chain management

Automotive supply chain

China

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