Purpose: The increasing importance given to sustainability issues by governments, companies, consumers, suppliers, researchers, students and the authors of this paper in addition to the scarce empirical studies on the topic of sustainable last mile logistics operations in the food retail industry in Sweden provides relevance to the choice of topic. This paper presents an exploratory single-case study on a Swedish food retailer with a strong sustainability-oriented decision-making body, and will seek to understand how they manage to adopt best sustainable practices and which drivers and most responsible for it. Objective: The aim of this study is to present through an empirical study, how food retailers operate their last mile logistics operations according to the triple bottom line approach, contributing to this young field where a profusion of data to confirm the existing theory remains deficient. Furthermore, the focus is placed on the different drivers for food retailers to adopt sustainable practices in their transportation operations from the distribution warehouse to their stores located in urban areas. Approach: A Swedish food retailer that strives for best practices will be studied in order to obtain key empirical data, which will allow the authors to compare theory and empirical data.  The study will focus on the sustainability-oriented operations approach in the Last Mile Logistics of the chosen retailer and observe the different drivers regarding their operations following all aspects of the triple bottom line. A single-case study analysis of a leading company in terms of sustainability-driven operations will provide more insight on how this “category” of food retailers manages to operationalize their environmental-friendly culture and strategy for inbound Last Mile Logistics successfully, without losing their competitive edge and remaining economically sustainable. Findings: After juxtaposing the secondary data issued from the existing theories on sustainable LML in the food retail industry to the primary data obtained from Axfood, a Swedish food retailer, the results have demonstrated that a business cannot neglect economic drivers to be financially sustainable, (cost optimization, enhanced efficiency, etc.) it remains important and cannot be overridden to enable a shift towards optimal sustainability practices in LML operations. However, the drivers that have proven to make the cut in order to succeed in achieving best sustainable practices are; a highly proactive management, stakeholder pressure (particularly consumers and NGOs amongst others) and innovative technology (including those that imply a short-term economic trade-off for long-term greater good to the TBL dimensions). Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainable practices; Last Mile Logistics; Sustainable Last Mile Logistics; Triple Bottom Line; Food Retailers; Food Retail Industry; Drivers.

Thesis (M.Com. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

The leaders of all countries of each sector and level of society are compelled to work together to address [social and environmental] challenges by maintaining sustainable human development and ensuring that the benefits of globalization are shared more widely. It is in the interests of businesses that these benefits continue both for companies and for others in society.   The Venture Capital is a financial capital provided to the startup firms in their early stages which has a high potential for growth but also entail high risk. The Venture capital firms typically look for new and small businesses with a perceived long term growth potential that will result in a high payout for investors. Venture capital is a subset of private equity of the firms. On other hand, Private equity is an asset class consisting of equity securities, which are not quoted in the stock market. An investment in private equity most often involves either an investment of capital in a mature firms as well as buyout firms.             The purpose of this study is to explore the gap between UK and U.S venture capital and private equity firms on the base of ESG criteria into investment decision making process. To find a relationship between venture capital and private equity firms mainstream investment with ESG criteria and also highlight new trends and the issues, which are potential barrier of ESG criteria implementation in UK and US firms. The authors used different academic literature, previous studies to find a gap and a relationship of ESG criteria into mainstream investment decision making process in UK and U.S firms.   The research is based on both primary & secondary data under descriptive nature of study. A technique with the name of content analysis was used to collect the quantitative data from the U.K and U.S Venture Capital and Private Equity firms. These firms are further categorized in the sample size under the umbrella of clean tech and non-clean tech. Total sample size is 120 firms (60 VC & 60 PE), where 56 are clean tech and 64 are Non-clean tech firms. The find a relationship between variables regression analysis technique is used through SPSS for verifying the validity and variability of collected Data.   We found that, an ESG criterion is on development stage, and there is no such technique and standards that are developed by the venture capital and private equity firms. We found, that firms are mostly focusing on responsible investment strategy; it is somehow same like whole ESG for purpose of their investment screening process. We found that ESG consideration in some UK and U.S venture capital and private equity firms exist, but vary from firms to firms. Some firms are considering just one factor while some other firms consider more than one.  Large firms have more focus on ESG as compared to small firms; due to the nature of business and size, and number of employees, focus is only limited towards investment options and development of strategies for the firm. The result of this study interpret that the U.S firms are focusing more on investment returns, and pay less attention towards ESG as compared to U.K firms, Where UK Venture capital and private equity firms results shows that, they are more focused towards ESG and feel free to incorporate ESG criteria into their investment strategies without incurring any cost in terms of risk and returns.

Most theories that attempt to describe the relationship between corporate sustainability strategies and a company’s triple bottom line also make the assumption that there is insufficient evidence to produce generalizable conclusions. This study contributes to the overall body of knowledge, as there is a lack of significant generalizable knowledge on corporate sustainability strategies and a company’s triple bottom line. To provide a methodologically more rigorous review, we performed a meta-analysis on 18 scholarly articles from top-tier academic journals containing 64 experimental treatments that measured an observed (not self-reported) behavioural outcome, which yielded a sample size of 23,871 observations. Most studies combined multiple treatments, which preclude definitive conclusions on the most effective treatments. The findings suggest that there is a positive medium to strong relationship between sustainability-oriented strategies, for both reactive and proactive behaviours (Dyllick et al., 1997; Gminder et al., 2002), and a company’s “triple bottom line.” Furthermore, regardless of the firm type (e.g., multinational corporation or local establishment, emerging economy firm or developed nation business), proactive sustainability-oriented strategies tend to have a higher payoff than firms that adopt reactive sustainability-oriented strategies. This meta-analysis establishes a greater degree of certainty with respect to corporate sustainability strategies and a firm’s triple bottom line relationship than currently assumed by many business scholars. To conclude, the sustainability concept has significantly expanded the scope of measuring organizational performance according to economic, social, and environmental components (Robins, 2006), which are collectively described as the “triple bottom line.” Organizations have determined that specific products and processes can have serious environmental and social implications beyond providing typical economic benefits (Sarkis, 2001). Based on the results of this study, companies should develop more diversified sustainability strategies that will help them to identify and capture value (McMullen, 2001). The results demonstrate that sustainability can provide companies with a strategic advantage, which is vital for the organization’s long-term viability and success (Orlitzky et al., 2003). This study also examines the balance between reasonable return on investment and long-term organizational viability, which greatly impacts organizational decision-makers that contend with numerous stakeholder issues, pressure from environmental agencies, and increased social consciousness that affects workers, consumers, and communities. It supports the conclusion that being proactive in responding to these conflicting pressures and barriers helps organizations to achieve higher levels of performance.

Fokus i denna uppsats ligger i att jämföra fyra organisationers hållbarhetsredovisningar och se i vilken utsträckning de uppfyller GRI:s riktlinjer för ekonomisk påverkan. De fyra organisationer som granskas är Sveriges storbanker, Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB och Swedbank. Eftersom att de agerar inom den finansiella sektorn har en avgränsning gjorts till det ekonomiska ansvaret eftersom det är det mest relevanta och intressanta att titta närmare på.  Problemformuleringen i denna uppsats lyder: På vilket sätt, i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar, tillämpar Sveriges fyra storbanker GRI:s riktlinjer för ekonomisk påverkan?  Syftet är att se hur bankerna har presenterat sin ekonomiska påverkan enligt GRI:s riktlinjer och jämföra dessa med varandra. För att få fram information om detta har respektive banks hållbarhetsredovisning för år 2010 granskats och tolkats. Den teoretiska referensramen som uppsatsen har utgått ifrån är CSR , ett begrepp som beskriver de tre ansvarsområdena ekonomi, socialt och miljö. Dessa tre områden är i grunden TBL (tripple bottom line). En stor del av teoridelen består av GRI:s riktlinjer och ramverk som även de bygger på TBL:s tre byggstenar.

It is acknowledged that the primary objective of any company should be the creation of shareholder-value. However, it is also recognised that there are other stakeholders, with their own financial and/or non-financial objectives, which could impact on a company's overall financial performance. Management should therefore identify stakeholder-groups which could impact on the company and formulate a model in addressing their objectives. This study integrates elements from the theory of shareholder-value, the agency-theory, the theory of property rights and different stakeholder orientation-models to develop the approach of responsible stakeholder-management in the creation of shareholder-value. Stakeholders can be grouped into economic, social and environmental components. The concept of sustainable development has exploded in recent years. Three main elements of sustainable development were identified, namely economic, social and environmental development, referred to as "Triple Bottom Line (TBL)". Several organisations have started focussing on the concept of sustainability by guiding the development of sustainability policies. However, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has become the de facto global standard for reporting on sustainable development. The concept of TBL, and how the three elements of sustainability could contribute to the maximisation of shareholder-value, is discussed. The results of the empirical study, where the financial performance and shareholder-growth of companies listed on the JSE and which adopted and reported on the GRI-guidelines, were compared to a group of companies in the same index grouping of the JSE that had not formally adopted and reported on the guidelines, identified a clear trend that those reporting on their sustainability policies had had a much better growth in five of the six financial measures used than the comparative group. / Thesis (M.Com. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

It is acknowledged that the primary objective of any company should be the creation of shareholder-value. However, it is also recognised that there are other stakeholders, with their own financial and/or non-financial objectives, which could impact on a company's overall financial performance. Management should therefore identify stakeholder-groups which could impact on the company and formulate a model in addressing their objectives. This study integrates elements from the theory of shareholder-value, the agency-theory, the theory of property rights and different stakeholder orientation-models to develop the approach of responsible stakeholder-management in the creation of shareholder-value. Stakeholders can be grouped into economic, social and environmental components. The concept of sustainable development has exploded in recent years. Three main elements of sustainable development were identified, namely economic, social and environmental development, referred to as "Triple Bottom Line (TBL)". Several organisations have started focussing on the concept of sustainability by guiding the development of sustainability policies. However, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has become the de facto global standard for reporting on sustainable development. The concept of TBL, and how the three elements of sustainability could contribute to the maximisation of shareholder-value, is discussed. The results of the empirical study, where the financial performance and shareholder-growth of companies listed on the JSE and which adopted and reported on the GRI-guidelines, were compared to a group of companies in the same index grouping of the JSE that had not formally adopted and reported on the guidelines, identified a clear trend that those reporting on their sustainability policies had had a much better growth in five of the six financial measures used than the comparative group. / Thesis (M.Com. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Most theories that attempt to describe the relationship between corporate sustainability strategies and a company’s triple bottom line also make the assumption that there is insufficient evidence to produce generalizable conclusions. This study contributes to the overall body of knowledge, as there is a lack of significant generalizable knowledge on corporate sustainability strategies and a company’s triple bottom line. To provide a methodologically more rigorous review, we performed a meta-analysis on 18 scholarly articles from top-tier academic journals containing 64 experimental treatments that measured an observed (not self-reported) behavioural outcome, which yielded a sample size of 23,871 observations. Most studies combined multiple treatments, which preclude definitive conclusions on the most effective treatments. The findings suggest that there is a positive medium to strong relationship between sustainability-oriented strategies, for both reactive and proactive behaviours (Dyllick et al., 1997; Gminder et al., 2002), and a company’s “triple bottom line.” Furthermore, regardless of the firm type (e.g., multinational corporation or local establishment, emerging economy firm or developed nation business), proactive sustainability-oriented strategies tend to have a higher payoff than firms that adopt reactive sustainability-oriented strategies. This meta-analysis establishes a greater degree of certainty with respect to corporate sustainability strategies and a firm’s triple bottom line relationship than currently assumed by many business scholars. To conclude, the sustainability concept has significantly expanded the scope of measuring organizational performance according to economic, social, and environmental components (Robins, 2006), which are collectively described as the “triple bottom line.” Organizations have determined that specific products and processes can have serious environmental and social implications beyond providing typical economic benefits (Sarkis, 2001). Based on the results of this study, companies should develop more diversified sustainability strategies that will help them to identify and capture value (McMullen, 2001). The results demonstrate that sustainability can provide companies with a strategic advantage, which is vital for the organization’s long-term viability and success (Orlitzky et al., 2003). This study also examines the balance between reasonable return on investment and long-term organizational viability, which greatly impacts organizational decision-makers that contend with numerous stakeholder issues, pressure from environmental agencies, and increased social consciousness that affects workers, consumers, and communities. It supports the conclusion that being proactive in responding to these conflicting pressures and barriers helps organizations to achieve higher levels of performance.

Le travail réalisé dans le cadre de cette thèse propose une démarche de sélection de partenaires (fournisseurs et prestataires) dans une chaîne logistique durable en boucle fermée. Il s’agit d’évaluer les partenaires en fonction de critères économiques, environnementaux, et sociétaux puis de sélectionner ceux qui interviennent dans la chaîne logistique en respectant un ensemble des contraintes. Nous développons une méthode d’évaluation et de classement des partenaires basée sur une approche hybride en utilisant les méthodes AHP et PROMETHEE, dans un environnement flou. Ensuite, nous proposons un modèle mathématique multi-objectif qui permet non seulement de minimiser le coût total de la chaîne logistique, mais également de maximiser la valeur totale de l’approvisionnement, minimiser les émissions de gaz à effet de serre et maximiser le bénéfice sociétal. Nous utilisons une approche max-min pondérée pour résoudre le modèle proposé à l’aide de l’outil de modélisation et d’optimisation GAMS. / Reverse logistics network design is a crucial issue in which it is important to take into account the selection of the most appropriate partner with sustainability concerns. This partner can be a supplier or a third-party reverse logistics provider (3PRLP). However, research works that consider reverse logistics (RL) network design, partner selection, and sustainability issues simultaneously are rather limited till now. This research work proposes an integrated sustainable approach for partner selection and closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network configuration, particularly in the case of outsourcing reverse logistics process to third-party provider. We propose a trade-off between sustainability criteria for both supplier and 3PRL provider selection. A multi-objective mixed-integer programming (MILP) model is also proposed to configure CLSC network and to select the best partners. The model minimizes the total cost of sourcing, and the total greenhouse gas emissions, while it maximizes the total value of reverse logistics, and the number of new job opportunities. A numerical example is also presented to illustrate the proposed approach.

Until recently, the concept of green logistics has been disregarded by various logistics and transport companies in South Africa. The study on which this dissertation is based explored the green logistics practices that these companies are currently implementing in terms of the key drivers, benefits and barriers. A quantitative research approach was followed, were a survey (Lime) served as the primary research instrument. A census was conducted among 160 companies in Gauteng. The results of the study revealed a significant difference between SMEs (<200) and large (200 and above) companies with regard to their importance rating on green logistics practices. To achieve the primary objective of the study, a framework in green logistics was drafted for SMEs and large companies in South Africa, which outlined practices and opportunities companies can implement in their own businesses to benefit from ‘going green’. The usefulness of the latter mentioned guidelines needs to be tested in future research. / Public Administration and Management / M.. Com. (Logistics Management)