GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN FOOD RETAILING

Abstract

Increasing concern about environmental and social issues in food production and consumption has been spreading rapidly in Europe. From the corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspective, food and agribusiness companies are frequently subject to broad interests and there is an increasing need for them to respond to the sustainability challenges. Companies in the food sector are facing rapid changes due to the growing concern and raising awareness among consumers of traceability in the food supply chain, the origin of raw materials and food safety, environmental impacts of products and processes, as well as other social issues, such as animal welfare. As customers, governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), media and wider society are all demanding from companies to provide an open and well-substantiated account on how they operate, what their impact on society is, and how they are minimizing negative impacts and saving scarce natural resources. More recently, retailers have also increasingly begun to address environmental concerns on the store level, as well as in the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to identify and provide an overview of environmental practices among food retailers, the ones which they are pursuing on the store level, as well as in the supply chain.