The concept of sustainability, which was first introduced in 1987, has gained a lot of importance in today's world, which is developing very fast and consumption rates have reached incredible proportions. For sustainability, which means the ability to be permanent or remain for future generations, countries, businesses and societies are now at a point where they may face more difficult situations. As a matter of fact, despite its political support and public references to its importance, today's world still faces the threat of global warming. Businesses, which are the stakeholders of the environmental world, are encouraged or directed by both the public and the states to create strong policies in this context. In addition to the general policies that businesses can make within the scope of sustainability, it is possible for businesses to make sustainable practices in areas that make up their sub-activity.
In this context, logistics, which is one of the sub-functions of enterprises and has the ability to provide economic competitive advantage, comes to the fore. The importance given to these areas gains a special value as they contain the elements that cause the emission of harmful gases to the environment, especially in the transportation part. In the transportation part of logistics, businesses can contribute to sustainable transportation with behaviors such as choosing the right vehicle, purchasing vehicles using renewable energy sources, avoiding the use of transportation vehicles with high carbon emissions, strict follow-up of vehicle repairs and maintenance, and choosing sustainable transportation modes. Similarly, in stock and storage activities, businesses can contribute to a sustainable world with practices such as working at low stock levels, accurate demand forecasting, and supply chains with pull systems.
Finally, applications such as reverse logistics, which serve the purpose of reusing the scarce resources in the world, are also applications applied by businesses. On the contrary, it can sometimes enable the enterprise to reach the input to be used in production in cheaper ways. Thus, both economic sustainability and environmental sustainability are strengthened.
