Development of Sustainable Supply Chain Management through Green Manufacturing Practices The case of food sector in Belgium

The food industry is growing constantly, therefore food companies cause significant environmental impacts to meet consumers' needs and expectations. For this reason, sustainability in the supply chain is very crucial to preserve the environment, ensure operational efficiency. It also reduces cost, increases profit, also tackles society, and maximizes social welfare, minimizes production wastes and pollution, thus led increasing health and reducing hunger. Food companies play a major role in tackling these problems, raising awareness for sustainability, and implementing green supply chain practices. Consequently, this study examined whether food companies, especially dairy, bakery, and pastry, implement green practices and their implementation barriers. The purpose of this study is to conduct research based on case studies of food companies that manufacture in Belgium to examine their impact in the manufacturing process. Particularly, these case studies can show how companies integrated green practices into their manufacturing process to minimize their negative environmental impact and how did they overcome their challenges. The findings indicate that although companies want to implement sustainability, and specifically green manufacturing practices they do not follow their commitments, just few companies follow, consider cost benefit balance before implementation. Even if they implement them, there is a lack of innovative and advance technologies, and knowledge about the topic.