Sustainable Warehouse Management

Abstract

This review summarizes the findings of 20 studies which overall topics are about sustainability in warehouse management. The studies involve a variety of strategies and practices that mainly focus on optimizing social and environmental outcomes within warehouse operations. They explain the importance and benefits that are relevant to the three domains of sustainability in warehouses: environmental, economic and social domains. A comprehensive investigation is conducted to find out relevant strategies, models and practices to ensure that the subject is covered thoroughly. The findings suggest a thorough framework of green strategies integrating energy-efficiency measures and solutions that focus on diminishing the environmental strain on logistics sites. Other findings also show that data driven decision-making frameworks improve sustainable inventory management practices. Significantly, research find enhancement in operational efficiency can be done by the implementation of green supply chain management strategies in logistics warehouses. These implementations can also support the sustainable development of practices while lowering costs. Most of these practices deal with energy conservation, the effect of warehouse construction on the environment. In most of the studies, the researchers suggest the possibility of future research that can focus on the impact of big data and its role in optimizing operational efficiency as well as enhancing decision-making in sustainable warehousing. There is also an urgent need to conduct more studies into the various sustainable management practices in warehouses to reduce their environmental footprint.