Green Competitiveness in the Logistics Industry: Analysis of Emerging Practices from Three Continents

The logistics industry is under increasing pressure to operate sustainably as it is one of the major contributors to global pollution. This study examines current green trends and emerging practices in the logistics industry and their impact on future competitiveness. To achieve this objective, the authors conducted a literature review and identified a classification of green practices based on recent literature. Then it analysed the annual and sustainability reports of three large logistics companies, namely XPO Logistics from the USA, CMA CGA from Europe, and SF Logistics, to determine the alignment of their practices with the identified industry trends. The practices were interpreted using the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory to assess their potential for sustained competitiveness. The study provides insights into the current and emerging green practices of the three logistics companies, their relevance to mitigating the impact of the identified trends, and their potential for leveraging a competitive advantage. The findings show that existing green practice classifications are inadequate to describe emerging green practices, the differences in green practices across the regions are not significant, and most of the green practices do not add sustainable competitive advantage to the companies. This study highlights the academic classification of green practices has to be revisited and reworked frequently based on the trends at the time of the study and the need for academic interpretations based on current industry practices rather than older insights which might be inadequate and irrelevant. Most significantly, this study proposes a new classification of categories of green practices in the logistics industry and an approach to achieving sustainable competitive advantage.