THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF LEAN SUSTAINABLE LOGISTICS Apichat Sopadang 1 , Sooksiri Wichaisri 1* , Aicha Sekhari 2 1 Excellence Center in Logistics and Supply Chain Management Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand 50200 2 DISP laboratory, University Lumière Lyon 2 160 Bd de l'Université 69676 BRON Cedex France Tel: 0-5394-4125 Fax: 0-5394-4185 E-Mail ∗ sooksiri.wi@gmail.com ABSTRACT Purpose: Logistics has an important role play in part of competitive strategies that relates logistics activities. It considers economics dimension such as cost, time and distance. Then, lean, which is well-known concept, can be applied to analyse logistics operations of companies. It uses seven wastes to identify and eliminate all of wastes in terms of value-added activities. Additionally, sustainable development is relevant logistics with three aspects comprising of environmental, social and economics for long-term benefits. So, this paper will present the linkage factors between sustainable development and lean concept on logistics activities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reviews on three subjects comprising of sustainable development, lean concept and logistics. It explores the factors which are related to each other. Then, it identifies the linkage factors that are the most important factors to combine these subjects. The linkage factors represent these subjects which have strong power to integrate between sustainable development and lean concept on logistics activities. Findings: The result of this paper is the integration concept of three subjects comprising of sustainable development, lean concept and logistics. It presents the linkage factors between sustainable development and lean concept on logistics activities. Also, the sustainable wastes are the linkage factors between sustainable development and lean concept on logistics activities. They are classified into economics, environmental and social dimensions on each logistics activity. Originality/value: The finding contributes towards the linkage factors between lean concept and sustainable development on logistics activities. These powerful linkage factors have potential to integrate these subjects and transform them into lean sustainable logistics. Keywords: The linkage factors, Sustainable logistics, Lean Concept, Logistics Activities 1. Introduction According to the Brundland Report in 1987, sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It is a concept to balance three dimensions of sustainable comprising of economics, environment and social for achieving long-term benefits. The goal of sustainable development is to concern environmental issues while responding to essential aspects of social and economics. All of businesses need to be sustainable, so they should consider economics, environmental dimensions including social dimension for long-term development. Sustainable development can analyse overall of business process in order to develop and improve industries in Thailand (Puvanasvaran et al., 2011). It can achieve competitive goal for industry through balancing sustainable dimensions. Therefore, sustainable development is one of concept that can help organization meet need of them. Thus, sustainable logistics is a new concept to consider both sustainable development and logistics management. It is providing benefits of economics, environmental ways and making social responsibility on logistics activities. Sustainable logistics mainly considers environmental and social impacts to manage movement and storage of goods between origin point to customer point for efficiency and effectiveness. While benefits of social, environment and economic growth are direct outcomes of logistics improvement, these are goals of sustainable development. Impacts of environmental and social including economic dimensions concern business operations such as transportation infrastructure, high costs of resources and safety and health. Sustainability has become a key success for businesses. It can help them identify target area for improvement opportunity. Then, they have high performance of business for long-term benefits that are competitive in the global level.