Research Proposal

Introduction

With the advent of industrial revolution in Britain after the invention of the steam engine, the

need for energy from natural resources only exponentially increased. Gradually, lots and lots of

things had to be powered including trains, bulbs, telephones, automobiles etc. As society

progressed technologically, this need only grew more and more. After almost two hundred years

of exhausting Earth’s natural resources, human beings realized that soon Earth’s non-renewable

resources will be depleted. Non-renewable resources were described by Brundtland Report

(1987) as “natural resources that cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a pace quick

enough to keep up with consumption”. In the second half of the twentieth century, people started

realizing that this culture of mass consumption was unsustainable for Earth’s finite resources and

that they had to take measures if they wanted to preserve Earth for future generations. The

consequences of this constant strain on Earth’s resources started manifesting itself in the form of

climate change and environmental crises such as unprecedented volcanic eruptions, earthquakes,

water crisis etc. The concern for future generation’s right to enjoy the same amount of resources

gave rise to the idea of sustainable growth i.e. “capacity for Earth's biosphere and human

civilization to co-exist” (Williams & Millington, 2004). The main reason behind climate change

and global warming has been emission of greenhouse gases and the automotive industry

contributes to almost thirty percent of all emissions. There has been a lot of ongoing debate

about the extent to which the automobile industry incorporates sustainability concepts into its

day to day operations and in the automobiles contributing to reduction in the level of greenhouse

gas emissions such as CO2 and others. This gives rise to the question; how is the automobile
industry incorporating the sustainable practices into its manufacturing processes. This research

paper will try to answer this question in light of different theories of sustainability but before that

it is important for this research proposal to outline the aims and objectives of this study. Aims

and objectives help in understanding the reason for the study being conducted and what it hopes

to achieve. This research proposal will also include a preliminary literature review of the theories

and concepts that are to be explained in detail in the research paper. After conducting a

preliminary literature review, it is also necessary to outline the research methodology that will

give an idea into how this research should be conducted. The criteria of understanding the

sustainable manufacturing practices in the automobile industry would be given in the research

methodology.

Aims and Objectives

This research paper’s aim is to study the extent to which automotive industries have shifted to

the use of sustainable manufacturing on a general level. On a more specific note, this research

will study and analyze:

a. The term sustainability and its importance in today’s world which is characterized by

rapid technological progress.

b. The impact of normal manufacturing practices of the automotive industry on the

environment and its contribution to climate change.

c. The shift to sustainable manufacturing practices and whether it helps the environment.

d. The criteria used to determine the criteria that has to be fulfilled by manufacturers for

their practices to be considered sustainable manufacturing practices.

mass production of vehicles

f. The effect of these sustainable practices on environmental by comparing the performance

metrics before and after this shift

Preliminary Literature Review

This section will touch briefly on some relevant contemporary theories and frameworks that are

going to help in understanding the current literature present on sustainability in the research

paper. One of the most recent but famous frameworks on sustainability is the triple bottom line

framework which was introduced by Elkington in 1994. It is a framework with three bottom line

categories i.e. people, planet and profit. It is in line with the definition of sustainability given by

Savitz and Weber (2006), “it is not simply a matter of good corporate citizenship – earning

brownie points for reducing noxious emissions from your factory or providing health care

benefits to your employees but is now a fundamental principle of smart management”. This

framework helps businesses evaluate their performance in the context of each category of TBL

framework. People is the social equity bottom line of the framework which talks about the

human capital and practices pertaining to fairness and equality towards the human capital i.e.

labor and the general population which has nothing to do with the operations of business. By

adhering to the people bottom line of the TBL framework, companies make sure that harmful

labour practices are not employed during production such as child labour, harmful workplace

conditions, unfair and exploitative salaries etc. Moreover, companies also have to make sure that

no other people in that vicinity or anywhere are being harmed due to activities. This means that

companies following the TBL framework would minimize the generation of noise and air
pollution so that the residents living in the vicinity of their production plants are not affected,

physically or mentally. The term Planet in TBL framework refers to the natural capital and the

practices that are related to minimize the exhaustion of Earth’s natural resources. Companies

following TBL have to alter their activities in a way that doesn't put a strain on non-renewable

resources such as coal, oil, gas etc. Renewable resources like solar and wind energy should be

used by companies to power their activities. Not only that, fair practices pertaining to natural

capital also include avoiding water, land and air pollution that endangers the ecosystem and has

caused extinction of so many species. The profit bottom line of the TBL framework refers to the

value which is contributed by the company towards the society during its production process.

This bottom line deals with the company’s objective of profit maximization and aligns it with the

sustainable practices in manufacturing. Another framework to be discussed in the research paper,

is the idea of sustainable supply chain management. In simple terms, it refers to the awareness

that a company has regarding its social, environmental and economic impact and the actions

taken to lessen the social costs and maximize the social benefits of their activities.

There are many frameworks of sustainable supply chain management which will be discussed in

the literature review of the research paper and this proposal’s preliminary literature review will

only discuss two frameworks. One of the very important frameworks was introduced by Carter

and Rogers (2008) which links sustainability to supply chain management. They defined

sustainable supply chain management and outlined various ways and areas of the application of

the idea. Their framework establishes a positive relationship among sustainable supply chain

management and economic progress. However, their framework cannot be studied in isolation

but they identify four facets of Triple bottom Line framework (transparency, culture, risk

management and strategy) and link them to sustainable supply chain management. According to
Carter and Rogers (2008), “ risk is viewed as socio-ecological harm that may arise from a

company or SC’s products, services, and operations, and that needs to be managed through

contingency planning, supply disruptions, and outbound SC concepts”. Another framework for

sustainable supply chain management was put forward by Koplin et al. (2007) in which they

“highlighted a need for detecting supply related ethical risks at an early stage”. This is achievable

if companies implement and develop “internal and external social issues screening procedures

centralised information management systems” (Koplin et al., 2007). They came up with this

framework and concept after studying the supply chain management system of Volkswagen in

detail. After discussing the frameworks and principles of sustainable supply chain management,

it is imperative that companies’ and their motivation to follow these frameworks is also

discussed. Sustainable supply chains only emerge when there is enough environmental and social

pressure and motivation for the companies to follow them (Bala et al., 2008). There are many

motivations and pressures defined by researchers but the most important of them is the external

pressure from stakeholders such as employees, government and customers.Zhu et al. (2007)

prove this using a case study of chinese automotive industry. They discovered that “chinese

manufacturers have realized the importance of improving their environmental image under

market and regulatory pressures” (Zhu et al., 2007). However, others claim that external factors

are not the only motivators for companies to adopt sustainable supply chain management

because if external factors were the only reason then all companies within the same supply chain

would adopt these frameworks to the same extent but that is not true (Srivastava, 2007). He

claims that different attitudes and values of company’s management also affect the adoption of

green supply chain management principles by the company. Current literature is also very rich

on the car's interior and how it has to be linked to sustainability concepts and frameworks.
According to Hetterich et al. (2012), “ The vehicle interior has to be transformed into an

increasingly attractive living space which can be achieved, for example, through attractive

surfaces made of sustainable materials”. According to his study, it plays an imperative role when

customers are deciding to buy a particular model of automobile. It is important to understand the

impact of adoption of sustainability frameworks on the performance of the automobile

companies and on the automobile industry on a general level. Amrina and Yusof (2011) used

previous research studies to develop a “set of initial KPIs for sustainable manufacturing

evaluation in automotive companies”. They developed a set of questionnaires in the context of

sustainability concepts and divided them into “three sections i.e. background information,

perception of sustainable manufacturing and perceived importance of the KPIs” (Amrina and

Yusof, 2011). Set of KPIs was constructed using the responses from this survey.

Research Methodology

This section deals with the whole process of carrying out this research study. This research is

based on the secondary research which is the analysis carried out using the data collected and

analysis provided by other researchers i.e. secondary sources. This research study will not carry

out any type of primary data collection in the process of analysis and research being conducted.

This research paper will use the existing conceptual frameworks such as Triple bottom line and

sustainable supply chain management to study the concept of sustainability in the automotive

industry. For the purpose of this research paper, automotive industries chosen will mostly be

based out of the UK in order to concentrate the research into a specific area because it is easier to

study and draw conclusions from the data of companies based in the same supply chain. This

research study will provide a detailed review of existing performance metrics against the desired
key performance indicators as outlined by Amrina and Yusof (2011). Data analysis will be

undertaken to study the impact of the adoption of these frameworks on the performance of these

companies. Not only that, data analysis regarding the people and their opinion about these

automotive companies and their mingling with sustainable practices to conclude if they were

successful in their objectives.

Carter, C.; Rogers, D. A framework of sustainable supply chain management: Moving toward

new theory. Int. J. Phys. Distrib. Logist. Manag. 2008, 38, 360–387.

Williams, Colin C; Millington, Andrew C (June 2004). "The diverse and contested meanings of

sustainable development". The Geographical Journal. 170 (2): 99–104.

doi:10.1111/j.0016-7398.2004.00111.x. S2CID 143181802.

Brundtland, Gro Harlem (20 March 1987). "Chapter 7: Energy: Choices for Environment and

Development". Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment

and Development. Oslo. Retrieved 27 March 2013.

Elkington, John (1999). Cannibals with forks: the triple bottom line of 21st century business.

Oxford: Capstone. ISBN 9780865713925. OCLC 963459936.

Koplin, J., Seuring, S. and Mesterharm, M. (2007), "Incorporating sustainability into supply

management in the automotive industry–the case of the Volkswagen AG", Journal of

Cleaner Production, Vol. 15 No. 11, pp. 1053-1062.

Bala, A., Munoz, P.; Rieradewall, J., Ysern, P. (2008): Experiences with greening suppliers. The

Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. Journal of Cleaner Production 16 (15), 1610-1619.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.04.015

Savitz, A. (2013). The triple bottom line: how today's best-run companies are achieving

economic, social and environmental success-and how you can too. John Wiley & Sons.

S.K. Srivastava. Green supply-chain management: a state-of-the-art literature review

International Journal of Management Reviews, 9 (2007), pp. 53-80

implementation by Chinese manufacturers citations. Transportation Research Part E 44

1–18.

Hetterich, J., Bonnemeier, S., Pritzke, M., & Georgiadis, A. (2012). Ecological sustainability. A

customer requirement? Evidence from the automotive industry Journal of Environmental

Planning and Management, 55(9), 1111–1133.