Green manufacturing performance measures: an empirical investigation from Indian manufacturing industries

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the performance measures for the green manufacturing practices in the Indian manufacturing industries. Design/methodology/approach – A tentative list of items/variables was developed for green manufacturing performance measures based on a thorough and detailed analysis of the pertinent literature. The survey questionnaire contained 128 items/variables, developed based on the literature and interviews with nine manufacturing industry experts, specifically green manufacturing areas. A total of 400 questionnaires were mailed out, and 114 were returned, of which 108 were valid, representing a response rate of 27 percent. Using the data collected, the identified items/variables were performed via factor analysis to establish reliability and validity. Findings – A total of 12 performance measures of green manufacturing with their 66 items/variables have been developed: top management commitment, knowledge management, employee training, green product and process design, employee empowerment, environmental health and safety, suppliers and materials management, production planning and control, quality, cost, customer environment performance requirement, customer responsiveness and company growth. Research limitations/implications – This study obtained 108 valid responses from the Indian manufacturing industries; the limitation of the study is the insufficient sampling. Future research needs to be performed using a larger sample and studying more countries. Practical implications – The performance measures developed in this study enables decision makers to assess the perception of green manufacturing in their organization and in prioritizing GM efforts. Originality/value – This study is probably the first to provide an integrative perspective of performance measures for green manufacturing practices in the Indian manufacturing industries. It gives valuable information, which hopefully will help this business sector to accomplish green manufacturing practices. This paper fills the gap in the literature on identification, establishment and validation of performance measures of green manufacturing for Indian manufacturing industries.