According to Amer Jazairy, both buyers and providers of logistics services strive for environmental sustainability in their relationships, but they often misunderstand each other. Green demands from buyers can, for example, be too specific, contradictory or impossible to fulfil by the logistics service providers.
“For such reasons, we tend to quickly draw the conclusion that collaboration between these two actors is the way forward for greener logistics. However, our research shows that collaboration may not always be the key”, says Amer Jazairy.
We need to understand the conditions of collaboration
Amer Jazairy and his colleagues at the University of Gävle identified two different types of collaborations. One type is characterised by strategic long-term agreements, where specific investments are made for a particular relationship. The other type focuses on the exchange of knowledge and information between the two actors. Their research shows that certain green logistics practices may only require the first type of collaboration, whereas others may only require the second. Some, however, require both.