Green supply chain management : a study of green supply chain management within the pulp and paper industry

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to create a framework that can be used by supply chains, in particular supply chains from the pulp and paper industry, to identify internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats to develop environmental strategies. To identify which questions to use in the environmental strategy framework, we first identified the environmental picture which the pulp and paper industry is facing. We then used this and the theory of green supply chain management, to find out how the non-integrated supply chain NORTØMMER, Norske Skog and IKEA, has become greener, and compared it with the integrated supply chain, UPM. Our findings show that there is an increasing focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the industry, but there is still a lot work that needs to be done. Lastly, we therefore present an environmental strategic framework to illustrate which strategic options this particular supply chain has that can make them greener. The general environmental framework presented can be used as a strategic tool to identify environmental strategic options for supply chains.