The green supply chain takes into consideration the impacts of the supply chain on the environment and implements the best strategies to protect it. It is also referred to as sustainable supply chain because it focuses on minimizing the environmental footprint of a product or service thus promoting sustainability. It incorporates ecological elements into the conventional supply chain practices to add value to various activities of the supply chain and make them environmentally conducive ( Fahimnia, Sarkis & Davarzani, 2015) . This essay focuses on providing my reflective analysis and perception of green supply chain and its corresponding aspects.
There have been growing concerns regarding global warming as well as the impact of production on nature. However, sustainable supply chain comes in handy to shape the practices and the supply chain processes to make them environmental friendly. Compared to the conventional supply chain, I hold that the sustainable supply chain plays a vital role in the organizations' supply chain practices by providing various benefits to such organizations. In my view, one of the importance of incorporating green supply chain is the increased sustainability of resources. Embracing green supply chain practices enables companies to think through their decision-making process as well as promote ecologically friendly production operations for suitable green products ( Cousins et al., 2019) . In return, I believe that this improves the organizational public image and reputation, which are crucial to the growth and marketability of the company. On that breath, as a supply chain manager of a company, I would incorporate the green supply chain because it will lower production costs, increase production efficiency and protect the environment which would boost the image of the company. This will help my company to reduce wastes while increasing efficiency. By ensuring effective green supply chain practices, the company will minimize production costs, promote cycling, and reuse resources, and other raw materials ( Roehrich, Hoejmose & Overland, 2017) . Based on my familiarity with green supply chain, I think that it is useful to organizations as it improves product differentiation as well as a competitive advantage. I consider companies such as Toyota, Adobe Systems, and Maersk as some of the companies whose growth and success has significantly been contributed by adoption of the green supply chain in their operations. Toyota has reduced emissions through the green supply chain, while Maersk has achieved a 25% reduction in carbon emissions per container.
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I have noticed that the concept green supply chain and its implementation are facing more challenges, which make them less-implementable by most of the organizations across the world. I agree with Laari et al (2016) that in most value-chain organizations that go green yet lack an effective plan, they struggle to avoid bankruptcy among other operations disasters. I believe the high level of uncertainty regarding the market position poses a huge challenge to the green supply chain. I do not believe that going green often translates to better revenues considering supplies and manufacturers are always concerned with the underlying risks. Green supply chain practices are quite costly, and since most organizations aim at maximizing production and profits while minimizing costs, they view green supply chain as a cost-ineffective strategy. Another challenge I believe has impacted the GSC is the limited available resources. The practice of sustainable supply chain is less known and implemented by most companies due to the limited availability of resources, which can impact the organization's production goals and profitability ( Gunasekaran, Subramanian & Rahman, 2015) . I think it is essential that companies deduce strategies to make their supply chain processes green because soon, governments and international organizations will make it mandatory. Organizations should invest more on research on how they can efficiently incorporate green supply chains without compromising their profitability and production because in the long run, it is organizations that stand to benefit.
References
Cousins, P. D., Lawson, B., Petersen, K. J., & Fugate, B. (2019). Investigating green supply chain management practices and performance. International Journal of Operations & Production Management .
Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J., & Davarzani, H. (2015). Green supply chain management: A review and bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Production Economics , 162 , 101-114.
Gunasekaran, A., Subramanian, N., & Rahman, S. (2015). Green supply chain collaboration and incentives: Current trends and future directions.
Laari, S., Töyli, J., Solakivi, T., & Ojala, L. (2016). Firm performance and customer-driven green supply chain management. Journal of cleaner production , 112 , 1960-1970.
Roehrich, J. K., Hoejmose, S. U., & Overland, V. (2017). Driving green supply chain management performance through supplier selection and value internalization. International Journal of Operations & Production Management .
