A model for assessing the greenness effort in a product supply chain

Many organisations are beginning to acknowledge that strategies and practices, which incorporate environmental considerations, can be tooled to acquire a competitive advantage. While proactive and value-seeking approaches have been suggested in the management literature, very few theories and frameworks have been presented in the domain of supply chain operations. In this paper, we suggest a framework, using gap analysis to compare the greenness effort for concurrent product supply chains. This praxis would help managers to achieve the following: (1) assess and benchmark a supply chain effort for a company product against similar products produced by competitors and (2) determine the gap between the current supply chain greenness effort and the ideal or targeted green supply chain. An illustrative example is used to substantiate the main argument. The results of this research would help state authorities and industrial managers keep track of the efforts made by companies when addressing environmental issues. This study responds to the needs of researchers in the green supply chain to develop models easy to understand and to apply by managers, not operational research specialists.