Green and Sustainable Supply Chain Management (GSCM and SSCM): A Comparative Literature Analysis of Definitions and the Identification of the Relationship between Environmental and Economic Pillars in GSCM

purpose of this document is to identify and analyse the published definitions of the management of the green and sustainable supply chain management. A total of 30 definitions for Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) and 19 definitions for Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) have been identified and analyzed. Following this analysis, a set of companies sustainability characteristics are proposed (social, economic, ecological and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance). The analysis has shown that GSCM definitions are generally based on the environment characteristics. Although SSCM definitions are based on the three levers of Sustainable Development (SD) at the same time. CSR has been identified only in the SSCM definitions, since it presents a set of practices implemented by the company in order to respect the principles of SD. It is argued that the SSCM is essentially an extension of the GSCM. However, some definitions of GSCM add the social lever to the economic and ecological levers which create an overlap between the two definitions, to solve this problem, a new definition of GSCM has been proposed.