Assessment of Implementing Green Logistics Principles in Railway Transport: The Case of Lithuania

Kristina Čižiūnienė, Jonas Matijošius, Edgar Sokolovskij () and Justė Balevičiūtė
Additional contact information
Kristina Čižiūnienė: Department of Logistics and Transport Management, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Plytinės Str. 27, 10105 Vilnius, Lithuania
Jonas Matijošius: Mechanical Science Institute, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Plytinės Str. 25, 10105 Vilnius, Lithuania
Edgar Sokolovskij: Department of Automobile Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Plytinės Str. 25, 10105 Vilnius, Lithuania
Justė Balevičiūtė: Department of Logistics and Transport Management, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Plytinės Str. 27, 10105 Vilnius, Lithuania

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-24

Abstract: Today, green transport is a growing trend in terms of transport costs, CO 2 emissions and satisfaction with logistics services. Green logistics is an environmentally friendly and sustainable logistics system that encompasses activities affecting logistics functions and processes, promoting the environment and the development of a circular economy. Rail transport is considered to be one of the least polluting modes of transport, but the fact that only electrified rail represents the concept of green logistics has been underemphasised, as the fleet consisting of diesel trains is a major challenge. This article aims to investigate the implementation of green logistics in railway transport in the case of Lithuania. The scientific literature, SWOT analysis, expert evaluation and parameter correlation methods were used to achieve this goal. An analysis of the internal and external factors of Lithuanian Railways in terms of green logistics has identified the main strengths of rail transport. These are environmental friendliness, electric trains reducing CO 2 emissions, a strong focus on circular economy and others. The main weaknesses include the more extensive use of diesel trains, competition, etc. The external factors of the company show that the main opportunities are the reduction in net CO 2 emissions to zero, the acquisition of more electric locomotives and others, while the main threats include an increase in energy costs or the complexity of implementing new technologies. An analysis of these factors has led to the construction of a SWOT matrix, which shows that the company’s strategy in the field of green logistics is quite strong, with more strengths than weaknesses. The results made it possible to identify the links between the individual implementation principles of green logistics in railway transport and provide strategic guidelines for the successful integration of green logistic principles into railway transport in Lithuania.

Keywords: green logistics; sustainability; railway transport; parameter correlation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2716/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2716/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:7:p:2716-:d:1363922

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().