Environmental Responsiveness in the Bus and Coach Supply Chain: The Case of Greenhouse Gas Emission Production Through Improved Energy and Waste Practices

Abstract

A strategic concern of governments and industry in Australia has been the extent of environmental responsiveness of companies to their natural environment. Protecting the environment involves reconciling environmental issues and values with economic interests and business responsibilities. The rise in greenhouse gas emissions, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels and de-forestation, is attributed to global warming (Mills 1998). Evidence of increasing human impacts on the environment includes mounting levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, accumulation of wastes and pollution of ground and surface water, which are the focus of the current study. A key question emerges as to which industries are environmentally more responsible than others and is raised specifically in this paper in terms of the transport task’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this paper is to identify and understand environmental responsiveness within the bus and coach sector of the transport industry, a major contributor to the passenger transport task. The bus and coach sector is defined in the full context of supply chain management, that is the integration of business processes from end user to initial manufacturers and suppliers of vehicles and fuel through to the providers of services and information for the benefit and value of customers. A project, investigating the perceptions that bus and coach operators have about environmental opportunities and associated risks, was conducted. Twenty-six key stakeholders were invited to participate in either a survey or case study designed to ascertain energy and waste management practices. Environmental responsiveness occurs in areas that seem to have the greatest potential impact not only in terms of the environment but also business’s bottom line. While operators initiated waste and energy management programs so as to be socially responsible, they continued them because they discovered their costeffectiveness to the business. A number of specific actions are warranted based on the study’s findings.