Logística reversa e sustentabilidade: uma análise baseada em indicadores de desempenho sustentável

Abstract

Concerns about sustainable issues have increased business awareness of the importance of reverse logistics (RL) for developing environmentally conscious businesses and obtaining competitive advantages. The complexity of management and the specifics of RL's activities demand that companies set significant goals and use appropriate indicators to monitor their performance. However, despite the evolution of recent years, research on performance evaluation and its sustainability indicator in RL is still a recent, dispersed, fragmented and incomplete theme. In this scenario and aiming to contribute to the dissemination of sustainable parameters in the management of RL environments, this research sought to understand how sustainability has been incorporated in the scientific literature and in the performance evaluation of RL companies through performance indicators.Thus, it was carried out a bibliographic research on the evolution of performance in RL and a systematic review of the literature in search of indicators of sustainable performance in RL and Closed Loop Supply Chains (CLSC). The indicators found were compared with the indicators of a Brazilian company with RL activities and with the indicators proposed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In conclusion, the RL performance theme has been on the rise in the scientific literature for more than twenty years, with sustainability being one of the main topics of research. Furthermore, 329 environmental, 371 social and 251 economic indicators have been identified, but it was observed that there is still a lack of standardization of indicators. The analysis of the company’s indicators revealed greater interest in the dissemination of indicators on environmental aspects, not addressing many social aspects indicated by the GRI.