Abstracts Category : Other

Quantifyingthe impact of green supply chain management : a South African casestudy

by Nandie Coetzee

South African supply chains have moved from basicsurvival mode to a focus on optimised supply chains. These focusmainly on a reduction of inventory, cost, and lead time. Thefurther shift to end-to-end supply chain visibility might berequired to improve customer service and the competitiveness ofsupply chains (KPMG n.d.). The World Resources Institute (WRI)reported that, since the Conference of Parties 21 (COP21) inDecember 2015, six climate change milestones have been met. Thesemilestones are: 2015 being recorded as the warmest year on record;record levels of heat was experienced in each month in 2016; theArctic Sea ice currently at record low levels; a clearer connectionbetween extreme weather conditions and climate change induced byhumans; the impact of carbon-intense behaviour being more seriousthan predicted; and the Western Artic ice sheet is melting at afaster rate than previously predicted (Gilder, Parker and Rumble2016). South Africa's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions constitute thelargest single contribution on the African continent. If carbonemissions (CO2e) are not reduced, this will continue to growexponentially. South Africa's emissions are placed in the toptwenty in the world when considering per capita emissions. Theintensity of the emissions, calculated as the ratio of emission togross domestic product (GDP), is also above the world average andis similar to that of other industrialised countries globally, suchas Japan. The indication is that the South African Parliament willimplement a carbon tax from January 2017 (as predicted in April2016). It is not a question of whether a carbon tax will beimplemented in South Africa, but when (Gilder et al. 2016). Fromthe above statements it is clear that there is a need to understandand quantify the impact of implementing environmentally-friendlyinitiatives on business profitability and sustainability. Thiswould be carried out through a multiple case study approach at aglobal, South African-based, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)company, so that the carbon tax could be minimised and the impacton the environment be reduced. This will be the main objective ofthe study. To achieve this, objective, the following secondaryobjectives must be achieved in order to develop a framework thatcan be used to quantify the impact of green supply chaininitiatives on the profitability and sustainability of a business'supply chain. The developed Green Business Profitability Frameworkis applied to a South African company's supply chain to determinewhether the framework can successfully quantify the impact onenvironmental and business profitability. Yin (2014) emphasisesthat a good research design should address the research objectivesor questions, the propositions, and the unit of analysis. Theresearch design should also enable a logical link to thepropositions and the criteria that will be used to analyse theresults of the case study. This research investigates thedifference between environmental management and green supply chainAdvisors/Committee Members: Bean, Wilna (advisor), Grobler, Jacomine (coadvisor).