Inter-organisational green packaging design: a case study of influencing factors and constraints in the automotive supply chain

Abstract

Green packaging is playing an increasingly important role in greening the supply chain. However, the issues that companies face when developing green packaging solutions for the transportation of products within supply chains are poorly understood. A case study of an automotive component manufacturer is presented that explores the complexity of the decisions that surround the decision of inter-organisational packaging design. Drawing upon the literature, legislation and the expert evaluation provided by the case organisation, it identifies the important criteria that influence packaging design and comprise customer requirements, legislation, operational and environmental concerns. This research finds that even though the company makes significant efforts to improve its environmental performance, operational concerns are most influential factors in the design of packaging. Initiatives that aim to improve the environmental performance of packaging are also constrained by external influences in the supply chain, such as customer pressure to adopt branded packaging systems and the inability to influence the design of incoming goods and material packaging.

Keywords:

• packing problems
• supply chain management
• case study
• fuzzy AHP
• fuzzy TOPSIS

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees and the editor for their constructive comments on the earlier versions of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The research has been partly sponsored by EC FP7 [grant number PIRSES-GA-2013-612546]; by China NSFC [grant number 71390334].