Role of green logistics in the construction of sustainable supply chains

The global supply chain has been growing strongly in recent years. This development brings many benefits to the economy, society, and human resources in each country but also causes a large number of concerns related to the environment since traditional logistics activities in the supply chain have been releasing a significant amount of emissions. For that reason, many solutions have been proposed to deal with these environmental pollution problems. Among these, three promising solutions are expected to completely solve environmental problems in every supply chain: (I) Application of blockchain in the supply chain, (II) Use of renewable energy and alternative fuels, and (III) Design of a closed supply chain. However, it seems to lack a comprehensive study of these solutions aiming to overcome the drawbacks of traditional logistics. Indeed, this work focuses on analyzing and evaluating the three above-mentioned solutions and the impacts of each solution on solving problems related to traditional logistics. More importantly, this work also identifies critical factors and challenges such as policies, laws, awareness, and risks that are found to be remarkable difficulties in the shifting progress of traditional logistics to green logistics. Finally, directions for developing and deploying green solutions to the logistics, supply chain, and shipping sectors toward decarbonization strategies and net-zero goals are discussed in detail.