Designing an environmental sustainable supply chain through ISO 14001 standard

Purpose - The main objective of this paper is to investigate how a group of 18 companies, which are very committed to the environment, have developed a pattern in order to design a sustainability supply chain. The pattern is based on several requirements, including ISO 14001. Furthermore, the paper tries to identify the common pattern to optimizing the designed sustainability chain. Design/methodology/approach - This research has been conducted with 18 worldwide manufacturing companies that have their headquarters or their overseas headquarters in Europe. The 18 companies each have more than 2,000 employees and belong to different sectors. The 18 companies represent a multi-case study and the research was carried out by the means of interviews with the supply managers. Findings - The multi-case study analyzed in this paper has enabled the outline of an interesting pattern for improving supply chain environmental sustainability. This pathway is underpinned by the ISO 14001 standard requirements and divided into five steps. The first two allow the supplier to remain in the company vendor list. The other three improve the environmental performances of the supplier by the means of an environmental management system and Key indicators. In the last stage the supplier obtains the status of green partner. Research limitations/implications - This research has some limitations due to the fact that it is derived from case studies and consequently cannot be generalized. Therefore the theory derived from such an inductive inquiry, including the proposed five-step pattern, should be more thoroughly tested. Practical implications - The paper supplies a practical five-step pathway for improving a sustainability supply chain. The pathway can be implemented by practitioners at different levels and opens a scientific debate concerning how to design such similar patterns. Originality/value - In the fifth step of the pattern, a new concept concerning green partnership has been discussed. The company can help its supplier concerning the introduction of new technologies for the reduction of environmental impacts, or can share environmental knowledge and research.