A decision making trial and evaluation laboratory approach to analyze the barriers to Green Supply Chain Management adoption in a food packaging company

Environmental deterioration is becoming a topic of focus for researchers and practitioners around the world, as increasing consumer demand is further driving activities across all sectors of products and services. As such, governmental regulations are being enforced and countries around the globe are adopting means of promoting environmental policies in order to mitigate pollution by improving environmental performance and increasing efficiency. Such policies are applicable across all industries, including both the manufacturing and services industry. Specifically, the packaging industry has a very high environmental impact due to the significant level of pollution occurring from the use of hazardous packaging material. The implementation of environmental management concepts can help control the effect from the hazardous packaging of products. However, the implementation of Green Supply Chain Management is hardly an easy task for most industries. There are several factors that act as barriers to the implementation of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM). The objective of the current paper is to identify the key barriers to the implementation of GSCM in the packaging industry by using Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL). The results of the study aim to assist the packaging industry in better understanding the major barriers, as this is the first crucial step in overcoming them. Results demonstrate that lack of adequate training and progress monitoring as well as poor customer awareness and lack of pressure for widespread adoption of GSCM are among the most influential barriers. Important findings, limitations and managerial implications are also discussed in the current paper.