Copyrights© www.iosrd.org | All Rights Reserved 7 | Page Available online at www.iosrd.org IOSRD International Journal of Business Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2015, Pages 07-13 Journal home page: http://iosrd.org/journals Green Logistics for sustainable development: an analytical review Anil Kumar 1* 1 VNS Institute of Management Bhopal, MP, India *Corresponding Author E-mail Address: anilkr.iimt@gmail.com Abstract: In today’s highly competitive environment, green logistics i ssues are gaining high attention. Since it is an important part of supply chain management and plays an important role in the improvement of transport system. Logistics facilitates in getting products and services as and when they are needed and desired to the customer. It serves as a major enabler of growth of trade and commerce in an economy because it is helpful in economic transactions. The American Council of Logistics Management defines logistics as “the process of planning, implementing and controlli ng the efficient, cost effective flow and storage of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of meeting the customers requirements. Contemporary technological developments have improved the cost, efficiency and reliability of freight and passenger transport systems. At the same time, the negative environmental impacts of transportation have gained wide recognition and are at the core of issues of sustainability, especially in urban areas. Since the applications of logistics are generally positive for the efficiency of transport systems, it has been suggested that logistics should be environmentally friendly, thus the concept of “green logistics”. This paper will investigate the issue of green logistics and the environmental impacts it creates. This paper analyses how logistics managers could lead the initiative in this area by incorporating environmental management principles in to their daily decision-making process so that sustainable development could be achieved. Keywords: Green Logistics, Reverse Distribution, Sustainability, Supply chain management, 3BL 1. Introduction India is one of the largest economies in the world and a major emerging market that has a young population, rising investment rates, large domestic demand and globally competitive firm. Even though, the unexpected global crisis has taken its toll on the economy, it is predicted that India will become the third largest economy by the year 2025 after China and the USA. The transport and logistics sector are fundamental to the development of a country, especially so in India where it is estimated to provide employment for 45 million people. The economic growth in India has increased the demand for practically all transport services and further underlines the importance of providing an efficient logistics infrastructure in India. The Planning Commission of India has stressed that focus needs to be given to integrated transport solutions in preference to individual transportation and distribution services. In recent years there has been increasing concern about the environmental effects on the planet of human activity. That is why it has had an increasing amount of attention in the print and electronic media, in governmental agendas, in the academic literature and from the general public. Stakeholders are increasingly pressuring firms to assume responsibility for any negative effects their business activities might cause as well. The rising attention to the greener solutions doesn’t leave logistics aside because it plays a very important role, as it is one of the main pollution sources and resource user. Green logistics is largely studied in literature in the international context; yet very little research exists in order to better understand what the role of green logistics in sustainable development. This article analyzes the state of art of green logistics, which still constitutes an unexplored field. The author analyse a conceptual research and defined green logistics as the sum of different aspects. To summarize, the lack of consideration of green logistics lead to the following research questions: 1. What are the main pillars of green Logistics? 2. What are the drivers of Green Logistics? 3. What are the different paradoxes of Green logistics and creation of social and economic value by the green logistics? 4. What are the dimensions of the green logistics? 5. Conceptual framework for green logistics 2. Research Methodology Green logistics is an unexplored area and thus author developed a conceptual paper on green logistics. The data collection to support this methodology occurred by reviewing a large amount of literature. From all the major databases articles were