ADOPTION OF GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN PAKISTAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Abstract

Environmental sustainability in recent years has become a growing concern for businesses worldwide. Increased environmental awareness, pressure from key stakeholders, internal and external environmental factors have been the driving force for organizations to adopt green supply chain management practices. The purpose of the study is to identify drivers to adoption of green supply chain management practices and explore how have the green practices been adopted in the apparel industry of Pakistan. The textile sector of Pakistan has not been extensively investigated in literature in terms of green supply chain management. As the purpose of the study is exploratory, therefore, qualitative research methodology has been used in which multiple case studies have been evaluated. Five green supply chain management practices were identified from literature, namely: green purchasing, cooperation with customers, internal environment management, green logistics and eco design. Data has been collected from three textile companies based in Punjab. The analysis was done in two phases; within case and cross-case. It was observed that only the companies selling to the international market have adopted green supply chain management practices of green purchasing, co-operation with customers, internal environment management and eco-design. As far as green logistics is concerned, the only initiative taken in the local market is the use of biodegradable bags and that too for specific orders. Hence, it can be inferred that green logistics is in the initial stages of adoption in Pakistan and it will take time for the companies to adopt green logistics. A unique insight found in this study relates to driver behind adoption of green practices. While emerging economies like India and China are strongly driven by government rules and regulation to adopt green practices, in the case of Pakistan, international customers and internal organization factors mainly drive these practices. Future researchers can widen the scope of the study by exploring more practices like green manufacturing and by increasing the sample size. Moreover, they can use the same framework and observe it in a different industry.