Special Issue on: "Global Green Supply Chains and Logistical Issues"



Guest Editor: Dr. Alan D. Smith, Robert Morris University, USA



This special issue is intended to provide an outlet for innovative and timely contributions pertaining to global green supply chains and their associated logistical concerns. The notion of corporations adopting corporate socially responsible (CSR) strategies and becoming more sensitive to the natural environment is experiencing a tremendous surge of popularity nationwide, even in the midst of a global recession. It is an attractive and enduring concept to explore.



In recent years, implementing green strategies has become a major focus in nearly all industries. In order to achieve them, companies need to keep up to date on developments and green cleaning, educate themselves about changes in the legislative and regulatory environment, and train staff to implement green programmes in a variety of settings. Implementation of CSR involves a company’s effort to minimise its impact on the environment, to better engage employees, and to take care of them in ways beyond a simple analysis of their paychecks or giving back to the community.



Some consider CSR to be a natural and necessary evolution in corporate responsibility for helping people and the planet (following the triple bottom line of financial responsibility, or 3BL – people, profits, and planet). The phrase “going green” can mean many things to different people as well as to different businesses. People's reasons for reducing energy use can range from supporting the use of alternative energy sources as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against global warming or to do what they can to minimise their impact on their region's environment, to simply reducing their energy bills.



The motivating factors for businesses can include cutting operating costs (by becoming operationally leaner, for example), enhancing employee health and productivity, enhancing business reputation, or reducing the risk of running afoul of environmental regulations. A company can receive significant environmental gains and cost savings in the buyers’ supply chain by focusing on a particular industry with a high level of environmental impact.



Kent State University has successfully completed two International Symposiums on Sustainable Value Chains with green supply chains as their theme, and Robert Morris University has been hosting a sustainability conference with green issues as a major theme for years. This call for papers is a natural extension of those efforts. The goals of these two conferences included to communicate and learn sustainable value chain practices across research and practice; to enhance interactions between practitioners and researchers; and to create a platform for industry to lead by examples of best-practice associated with sustainability and its value chains.


Subject Coverage



Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

Operational, sociological, behavioural, economic and practical aspects of sustainable value chain solutions, from human intervention to reusability to recovery, from life-cycle management to strategic initiatives via the corporate forum
CSR initiatives based on green logistics and SCM
Reliability and efficiency issues in IT and datacentre operations
Operational considerations of maximum energy efficiency and minimum negative environmental impact of SCM and logistical systems
The dynamics, spread and consequences of green marketing-relevant initiatives
Characteristics of green consumers, perceived operational and strategic benefits of focusing on industrial and commercial buyers that want to know how raw materials are produced and where they come from, how food is grown, and what the foods' potential impact is on the environment
Green-based SCM and logistical concerns and strategic, operational and financial perspectives


Notes for Prospective Authors



Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper was not originally copyrighted and if it has been completely re-written).



All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page.


Important Dates



Submission deadline: 1 May, 2013


Editors and Notes



You may send one copy in the form of an MS Word file attached to an e-mail (details in Author Guidelines) to the following:



Dr. Alan D. Smith
Robert Morris University
Department of Management and Marketing
6001 University Boulevard
Moon Township, PA 15108-1189
USA
Tel: 330-206-3557
E-mail: smitha@rmu.edu