Analyzing the SSCM practices in the mining and mineral industry by ISM approach

Sustainable development is a concept that attempts to shape the interaction between environment and society, so that advances in wellbeing are not accompanied by deterioration of the ecological and social systems which support life into the future. In this view, Indian mining and mineral industries, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), are focused on developing their environmental performance through integrating sustainability practices into traditional supply chain management. They struggle, however, in their attempts to analyze and to identify influential sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices in order to increase sustainable performance. This paper analyzes and identifies dominant SSCM practices in the mining and mineral industries with the help of Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). The study uses three different research phases: identification of SSCM practices from the literature, interviews with various department managers of the Indian mining and mineral industries, and a survey conducted within the mining and mineral industries. In this paper, 25 SSCM practices were considered in fewer than six categories. Finally, the approach was applied to fifteen mining and mineral industries in India. The results of this study show that suppliers' IS014000 certification practice acts as an influential role over the recommended 25 SSCM practices. It is inferred that environmental management certification is therefore essential to increase sustainability performances in Indian mining and mineral industries. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.