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The purpose of this paper is to explore the environmental impact of logistics service provider (LSP) activities in the light of customer priorities and the fragmentation of the road haulage industry in Europe. It also explores the extent to which LSPs can actually monitor the environmental impact of logistics activities in the supply chain (SC).

The research is based on a narrative literature review, an interview study, a case survey and three in-depth case studies. A framework on sustainability challenges in SCs, derived from the literature, is used to structure and analyse the findings.

Despite the ambitious environmental schemes communicated by several LSPs, they show little interest in, and exert little control over, the actual emissions generated from their transport operations. It is clear from the results that any real concern from customers for environmental solutions which negatively influence the cost and time requirements of logistics services is not yet a reality.

This paper implies that LSP sustainability cannot be investigated in isolation if a company does not manage its proprietary resources (like owning trucks and employing drivers), but rather engage subcontractors.

Environmental policies among different LSPs appear to be similar as policies, but differ in practice. This variation of practices emphasises the importance of follow-up control by environmentally aware buyers of logistics services.

This paper represents a novel approach as to how LSP environmental policies should be viewed. It highlights the concrete need for action to achieve the environmental targets of 2020 and 2050 for carbon emissions from road transportation.

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on how perspectives and assumptions embedded in the complexity paradigm contribute to make logistics management research better aligned with real-life logistics. This is necessary, due to increasing supply chain complexity caused by an increasing request for sustainable development (SD).

The research is exploratory and based on a narrative literature review of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) from a complexity science perspective. Qualitative research interviews have been conducted with 12 logistics and supply chain managers in international companies and have focussed on their daily experiences and the underlying assumptions related to their actual work.

Logistics and SCM research is embedded in the functionalistic paradigm with reductionistic assumptions as the dominant logic. These do not sufficiently align with the complexity related, for example, to the daily work of SD in logistics management practice.

It is proposed that the inclusion of complexity-based assumptions in logistics management research can increase realism in the advancement of the discipline. A key result is that the recognition of logistics as complex means inclusion of human and social aspects – which is apparent in any logistics process or phenomenon – in logistics knowledge creation processes.

Increased realism in logistics management research by addressing complexity, instead of merely reducing it, will provide logistics and supply chain managers with increased understanding and appropriate knowledge when they deal with emerging challenges such as SD.

Based on Boulding’s levels of complexity, this paper challenges the underlying assumptions of logistics management in research and practice, and provides reflective frameworks for advancing the discipline and aligning it to the complexity of contemporary challenges in logistics management.