Chemical Technology June 2015

Exploring the challenges associated with the greening of supply chains in the South African manganese and phosphate mining industry by Professor David Pooe, Associate Professor, Department of Business Management , University of Johannesburg and Khomotso Mhelembe, Category Specialist, Airports Company South Africa

This article explores the challenges related to the implementation of GrSCM and provides insight into how it can be implemented in the South African manganese and phosphate industry.

U ntil the late 1980s, when the notion of ‘sustain- able development’ surfaced as noted in the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Develop- ment’s publication, Our common future. Annex to the General Assembly document A/42/427, [66], it was generally held that economic growth would inevitably lead to environmental degradation through the consumption of non-renewable resources, the overuse of renewable resources and the production of waste and pollution [13]. This thinking was out of sync with the principles underpin- ning the notion of sustainable development, defined as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [66]. Environmental impacts resulting from industry are represented by emission inven- tories of chemical release to the air, water and soil [25]. The environmental degradation resulting from economic activities led some policymakers and scholars, such as Beamon [1], to join in calls for a need to change manufac-

turing philosophy. Inevitably, this would have a bearing on supply chain management. For many years, the concept of supply chain management focused on enhancing op- erational efficiency and minimising waste – not so much for environmental reasons, but for economic reasons [59]. Essentially, the goal of supply chain management was about cost reduction, transportation and storage efficien- cies, whilst service enhancement came from better delivery performance and fewer stock-outs for the retailer [17]. Ac- cording to Ganeshan and Harrison [19], the supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that perform the function of procurement of materials, transportation of these materials into intermediate and finished products to customers and also involves extraction and exploitation of natural resources [57] The environment has now become critical in themanage- ment of supply chains; leading to acceptance of the notion of green supply chain management (GrSCM). Hui, Chan and Pun [28] indicate that government policies and pressure

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Chemical Technology • June 2015