Logistics service providers' energy efficiency initiatives for environmental sustainability

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-10-2019-0270
• Published date: 21 October 2021
• Date: 21 October 2021
• Pages: 1-26
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics
• Author: Jessica Wehner,Naghmeh Taghavi Nejad Deilami,Ceren Altuntas Vural,Árni Halldórsson

Logistics service providers’energy

efficiency initiatives for

environmental sustainability

Jessica Wehner, Naghmeh Taghavi Nejad Deilami and

Ceren Altuntas Vural

Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, and



Arni Halld

orsson

Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden and

Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

Purpose –This paper discusses logistics service providers’(LSPs’) energy efficiency initiatives for

sustainable development, both from an evolutionary perspective and based on a framework consisting of

actions, processes (i.e. at the operations interface) and services (i.e. at the customer interface).

Design/methodology/approach –Following a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were

conducted with sustainability managers at LSPs and the data were analysed via inductive coding. Based on the results

and the literature, the authors developed a maturity model for LSPs’transitions to environmental sustainability.

Findings –LSPs’sustainable development occurs via operational processes, services at the customer

interface, and actions that support those processes and services.Energy efficiency efforts are characterised by

process depth that helps LSPs to align with their customers’energy efficiency improvement processes. While

services related to energy efficiency connect LSPs and their customers, actions in support vary depending on

the logistics activities in which LSPs participate.

Research limitations/implications –Further research is needed to test and verify the maturity model and

to clarify the interdependency of its three dimensions.

Practical implications –By categorising energy efficiency initiatives and proposing a maturity model for

LSPs’sustainable development via energy efficiency, the authors have developed a tool for logistics actors to

assess their progress towards improved sustainability.

Originality/value –The paper contributes to the literature by providing a three-pillar framework to

understand the sustainability transitions of LSPs through energy efficiency. Developing a maturity model

using this framework also contributes to the literature with an approach to assess sustainability advancement

in the logistics industry.

Keywords Environmental sustainability, Green logistics, Logistics service providers, Maturity model,

Sustainable logistics

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

In logistics, energy is a resource that factors significantly into not only economic performance

but also environmental sustainability. In the process, however, logistics operations consume

vast energy resources and, in turn, produce a major share of Earth’s greenhouse gas

LSPs’energy

efficiency

1

© Jessica Wehner, Naghmeh Taghavi Nejad Deilami, Ceren Altuntas Vural and 

Arni Halld

orsson.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons

Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works

of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the

original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.

org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

This work was supported by the Swedish Energy Agency-Energimyndigheten, Area of Advance

Transport, Chalmers University of Technology and Logistik och Transport Stiftelsen - LTS.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0957-4093.htm

Received 16 October 2019

Revised 9 April 2020

24 September 2020

8 March 2021

18 June 2021

15 September 2021

Accepted 16 September 2021

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 33 No. 5, 2022

pp. 1-26

Emerald Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-10-2019-0270

emissions (Browne, 2005). Although freight transport and business logistics can improve

their environmental sustainability by pursuing energy efficiency (McKinnon, 2012;Lam and

Dai, 2015;Halld

orsson et al., 2019a), relative to the manufacturing sector, which has long

sought energy efficiency due to rising energy costs (Schulze et al., 2016), the logistics sector

responded only recently, largely to comply with EU Directives (EU, 2018) and UN sustainable

development goals (United Nations, 2015) requiring transport operations to reduce their

carbon emissions. Thus, whereas diverse sustainability initiatives pursued by logistics

service providers (LSPs) have been proposed and examined (Co licchia et al.,2013;

Evangelista, 2014;Abbasi and Nilsson, 2016;Centobelli et al., 2017a,b), pursuing energy

efficiency as a means of achieving environmental sustainability, especially by decarbonising

logistics operations and systems, has remained poorly understood (Kalenoja et al., 2011;Lam

and Dai, 2015;Halld

orsson et al., 2019a;Punte et al., 2019).

In logistics, energy efficiency, as a performance measure, refers to energy use in activities

such as transport and warehousing (McKinnon, 2012). Although diverse initiatives for

improving energy efficiency in logistics have been conceptualised, Martinsen and Huge-

Brodin (2014) have posited that such environmentally oriented initiatives are essentially

either transport-related initiatives (e.g. concerning fuel, vehicle technology, modal choice,

behavioural aspects and transportation management) or beyond-transport initiatives (e.g.

concerning logistics system design, environmental management systems and emissions).

Colicchia et al. (2013) have divided such environmental initiatives into two different broad

categories –intra- and inter-organisational –while Abbasi and Nilsson (2016) have

distinguished them according to their short-term versus long-term perspectives. Taking

alternative approaches to the topic, Evangelista (2014) has examined which initiatives LSPs

adopt in light of various drivers and barriers, and Centobelli et al. (2020) have extended that

view by classifying LSPs according to the sustainability-oriented strategies that they adopt.

Although the literature identifying and categorising those various initiativesin logistics offers

insight into the state of sustainability in the industry, the underlying principles of the process of

developing them are less apparent. Nevertheless, investigating how LSPs pursue sustainable

development with energy efficiency initiatives allows analysing a range of issues associated with

environmental sustainability, and may complement the study of transport-related (Martinsen and

Huge-Brodin, 2014) and/or technology-related (Centobelli et al., 2017b) initiatives in, for example,

route planning and information technology (IT) systems. Moreover, emphasising the

“development”part of LSPs’sustainable development by improving energy efficiency

foregrounds the conceptualisation of sustainable development as a process of change, not a

“fixed state of harmony”(Brundtland, 1987, p. 43). To be sure, whereas principles of mere

sustainability emphasise “a certain favourable outcome”, principles of sustainable development

emphasise the process that generates the outcome (Rob

ert et al., 2002, p. 198). However, knowledge

of that process’s evolutionary nature and its building blocks is currently lacking in the literature.

In logistics, the dominant approach to attaining energy efficiency as a performance

measure related to cost or quality undermines the interdependence between energy efficiency

and sustainability (Halld

orsson and Kov

acs, 2010). Albeit widely based on non-renewable

resources that cause pollution, the concept of energy efficiency plays a significant role in

achieving environmentally sustainable development in logistics as well (Golichich et al., 2010;

Taptich et al., 2016). As such, energy efficiency is not only a performance measure but also an

area for improvement. However, how such improvement enables the evolution towards

sustainable development in logistics is another aspect neglected in the literature.

This article investigates the sustainable development of LSPs [1] by exploring their

energy efficiency initiatives from an evolutionary perspective. In doing so, it contributes to

the literature in two ways. First, as a result of analysing LSPs’sustainable development

through energy efficiency, it captures formal and informal initiatives related to both internal

operations and the external market. Such focus on energy efficiency provides in-depth insight

IJLM

33,5

2