Importance of adopting green logistics practices

Abstract

In a modern world people, companies, government institutions, countries and even particular regions face an essential challenge to reduce harmful impact on the environment. The solution for overcoming this challenge lies in the principles of sustainable development. Logistics sector has a huge potential in contributing to sustainable development. Green logistics composes all solutions aimed at decreasing the ecological effect of traffic systems, peoples’ mobility, and transport itself. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the importance of green logistics operations in Lithuanian companies. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 429 Lithuanian companies. Author applied methods of descriptive statistics, data visualization and Chi-squared test. According to the results of the research, logisticians are able to clearly identify the relevance of adopting green logistics practices. It was found that adoption of green logistics practices in large companies is more important than in small business segments. Logisticians found the benefits of green logistics to be quite restrained, because of the existence of potential external and internal obstacles for the adoption of green logistics practices. These obstacles are related to the insufficiency of financial resources, lack of financial support initiatives, and obscurity of governmental aid policy. It is expected that findings of this research will encourage the adoption of green logistics practices in Lithuania. A systemic implementation of green logistics practices will be beneficial in achieving objectives of sustainable development.