IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/transj/v56y2017i3p263-298.html

Environmental Sustainability in Freight Transportation: A Systematic Literature Review and Agenda for Future Research

Author

Listed:
  • Lisa M. Ellram
  • Monique L. Ueltschy Murfield

Abstract

This article presents results of a systematic review of the conceptual and empirical literature published in the area of environmentally sustainable freight transportation (ESFT) since 1990. The research has been largely atheoretical and descriptive, though that has begun to change with the dramatic growth in this literature since 2010. The literature to date provides interesting insights into the way that ESFT practice has evolved. Following an input–transformation–output model, the topical focus of the research began with an emphasis on transformation processes or activities, and then considered inputs (represented by drivers/facilitators), barriers as moderators of the process, and outcomes of practice, or outputs. This article provides extensive suggestions for future research in each of the topical areas to help fill some of the gaps in theory and to enhance practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa M. Ellram & Monique L. Ueltschy Murfield, 2017. "Environmental Sustainability in Freight Transportation: A Systematic Literature Review and Agenda for Future Research," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(3), pages 263-298, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:transj:v:56:y:2017:i:3:p:263-298
    DOI: 10.5325/transportationj.56.3.0263
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.5325/transportationj.56.3.0263
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5325/transportationj.56.3.0263?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ali Pazirandeh & Hamid Jafari, 2013. "Making sense of green logistics," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 62(8), pages 889-904, October.
    2. John C Spychalski, 2011. "Transportation Policy: Precedent‐Breaking Choices over Five Decades," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(1), pages 10-22, January.
    3. Y. H. Venus Lun & Kee-hung Lai & Christina W. Y. Wong & T. C. E. Cheng, 2014. "Green shipping practices and firm performance," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 134-148, March.
    4. Alfred L. Guiffrida & Pratim Datta & Asoke Dey & Paul LaGuardia & Mahesh Srinivasan, 2011. "Building sustainability in logistics operations: a research agenda," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(11), pages 1237-1259, October.
    5. Asoke Dey & Paul LaGuardia & Mahesh Srinivasan, 2011. "Building sustainability in logistics operations: a research agenda," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(11), pages 1237-1259, October.
    6. Asoke Dey & Paul LaGuardia & Mahesh Srinivasan, 2011. "Building sustainability in logistics operations: a research agenda," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(11), pages 1237-1259, October.
    7. Ali Pazirandeh & Hamid Jafari, 2013. "Making sense of green logistics," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 62(8), pages 889-904, October.
    8. Sarkis, Joseph & Zhu, Qinghua & Lai, Kee-hung, 2011. "An organizational theoretic review of green supply chain management literature," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 1-15, March.
    9. Sönke Behrends & Maria Lindholm & Johan Woxenius, 2008. "The Impact of Urban Freight Transport: A Definition of Sustainability from an Actor's Perspective," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 693-713, September.
    10. John W. Bagby, 2015. "How Standardization Will Balance Sustainability Goals in the Transport Component of Energy Supply Chains: Efficiency versus Environmental Safety," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 136-149, January.
    11. Cathy MacHaris & Joeri Van Mierlo & Peter Van Den Bossche, 2007. "Combining Intermodal Transport With Electric Vehicles: Towards More Sustainable Solutions," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2-3), pages 311-323.
    12. Paul D. Larson, & Arne Elias, & Jairo Viafara, 2013. "Toward Sustainable Trucking: Reducing Emissions and Fuel Consumption," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 108-120, January.
    13. Taih-Cherng Lirn & Hsiao-Wen Lin & Kuo-Chung Shang, 2014. "Green shipping management capability and firm performance in the container shipping industry," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 159-175, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wendy L. Tate & Lisa M. Ellram & Lance Saunders, 2023. "The Limited Influence of Voluntary Environmental Partnerships on Increasing the Saliency of Freight Emissions in Corporate Sustainability Strategy," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(3), pages 269-310, June.
    2. Matthew A. Douglas, 2021. "Motor‐Carrier Safety: A Review and Research Recommendations for 2020 and Beyond," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(2), pages 93-140, March.
    3. Andrew Balthrop & Justin T. Kistler & Yemisi Bolumole & Alex Scott & Chad W. Autry, 2025. "Carbon Pricing and the Truckload Spot Market," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Ali Majidi & Pedram Farghadani‐Chaharsooghi & S. Mohammad J. Mirzapour Al‐e‐Hashem, 2022. "Sustainable Pricing‐Production‐Workforce‐Routing Problem for Perishable Products by Considering Demand Uncertainty; A Case Study from the Dairy Industry," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(1), pages 60-102, January.
    5. Matthew A. Schwieterman & Chris Welter, 2025. "The value of supply chain orientation in entrepreneurship: Implications for opportunity evaluation and Lean Startup," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(1), January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maryna Chepurna & Eduard J. Alvarez‐Palau & Cristian Castillo Gutiérrez & Marta Viu Roig, 2025. "Green Logistics: In Pursuit of a Final Definition," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(7), pages 8983-9007, November.
    2. Chia-Nan Wang & Ngoc-Ai-Thy Nguyen & Thanh-Tuan Dang, 2023. "Sustainable Evaluation of Major Third-Party Logistics Providers: A Framework of an MCDM-Based Entropy Objective Weighting Method," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-27, October.
    3. Himanshu Gupta & Kumar Shreshth & Manjeet Kharub & Ashwani Kumar, 2024. "Strategies to overcome challenges to smart sustainable logistics: a Bayesian-based group decision-making approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 11743-11770, May.
    4. Mustafa Tevfik Kartal & Dilvin Taşkın, 2026. "Impact of supply chain logistics and green transportation on green economics under green finance, oil price shocks, and geopolitical risk: evidence from the globe via novel quantile methods," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    5. Pierre, Cariou & Francesco, Parola & Theo, Notteboom, 2019. "Towards low carbon global supply chains: A multi-trade analysis of CO2 emission reductions in container shipping," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 17-28.
    6. Sheak Salman & Md. Rezaul Karim & Shah Murtoza Morshed & Rafat Rahman & Saifur Rahman Tushar & Sharmine Akther Liza & Naimur Rahman Chowdhury, 2025. "Mapping industry 4.0 strategies for sustainable logistics: insights from the electronic industry in emerging markets," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 16(6), pages 2246-2264, June.
    7. G. Sandhya Kiran & Pankajkumar C. Prajapati & Agradeep Mohanta, 2026. "A systematic appraisal of ecological niche modelling in the context of phytodiversity conservation," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 739-768, January.
    8. Tharsis Teoh & Oliver Kunze & Chee-Chong Teo & Yiik Diew Wong, 2018. "Decarbonisation of Urban Freight Transport Using Electric Vehicles and Opportunity Charging," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Graham, Stephanie & Graham, Byron & Holt, Diane, 2018. "The relationship between downstream environmental logistics practices and performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 356-365.
    10. Abbas Mardani & Dalia Streimikiene & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Fausto Cavallaro & Mehrbakhsh Nilashi & Ahmad Jusoh & Habib Zare, 2017. "Application of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to Solve Environmental Sustainability Problems: A Comprehensive Review and Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-65, October.
    11. Govindan, Kannan & Kilic, Merve & Uyar, Ali & Karaman, Abdullah S., 2021. "Drivers and value-relevance of CSR performance in the logistics sector: A cross-country firm-level investigation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    12. Lam, Jasmine Siu Lee, 2015. "Designing a sustainable maritime supply chain: A hybrid QFD–ANP approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 70-81.
    13. Maria Richert & Marek Dudek, 2023. "Risk Mapping: Ranking and Analysis of Selected, Key Risk in Supply Chains," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-30, January.
    14. Ardian Qorri & Saranda Gashi & Andrzej Kraslawski, 2021. "Performance outcomes of supply chain practices for sustainable development: A meta‐analysis of moderators," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 194-216, January.
    15. Beatriz Molina Serrano & Nicoleta González-Cancelas & Francisco Soler-Flores & Samir Awad-Nuñez & Alberto Camarero Orive, 2018. "Use of Bayesian Networks to Analyze Port Variables in Order to Make Sustainable Planning and Management Decision," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-16, January.
    16. Lineth Rodríguez & Mihalis Giannakis & Catherine da Cunha, 2018. "Investigating the Enablers of Big Data Analytics on Sustainable Supply Chain," Post-Print hal-01982533, HAL.
    17. Volker Frehe & Frank Teuteberg, 2017. "Information and communication technology in green logistics: status quo and research gaps," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 65-96, April.
    18. Margareta Stela Florescu & Eduard Gabriel Ceptureanu & Anca Francisca Cruceru & Sebastian Ion Ceptureanu, 2019. "Sustainable Supply Chain Management Strategy Influence on Supply Chain Management Functions in the Oil and Gas Distribution Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-16, April.
    19. Tripathy, Prajukta & Jena, Pabitra Kumar & Mishra, Bikash Ranjan, 2024. "Systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    20. Panagiotis Trivellas & Georgios Malindretos & Panagiotis Reklitis, 2020. "Implications of Green Logistics Management on Sustainable Business and Supply Chain Performance: Evidence from a Survey in the Greek Agri-Food Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-29, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:transj:v:56:y:2017:i:3:p:263-298. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.