An integrated approach to evaluating and selecting green logistics providers for sustainable development

Abstract

Balancing economic development with environmental protection has become a critical concern worldwide. However, along with the highly competitively global marketplace, economic factors are known to directly affect an enterprise`s development and its future business. Therefore, selecting the right partner for sustainable collaboration that will lead to improved business performance and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is a significant problem for many enterprises. In addition, investigating the economic impact of companies that are charged to protect the environment is becoming increasingly problematic. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the comparative efficiencies of 16 Green Logistics Providers (GLPs) in the USA from 2012 to 2015, and the projected four-year period of 2016-2019, by means of an integrated approach that combines the grey forecasting model GM (1,1) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results show that there are two GLPs, Knight Transportation and the Union Pacific Corporation, that possess a higher efficiency level and are achieving positive technical change. However, this study also determined that Hyster-Yale Materials Handling and CSX Corporation did not reach an acceptable efficiency score; therefore, they should improve technical efficiency to mitigate environmental concerns. This completely integrative methodology has the potential to provide the best decision-making strategies for finding suitable collaborative partners who are able to meet the sustainability requirements in most economic and environmental areas. © 2017 by the author.