Some of NITL’s academic staff recently attended the annual conference of the Logistics Research Network (LRN), which was hosted the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds. ITS is a free-standing academic department of the University of Leeds and part of the Faculty of Environment. Its primary purpose is to advance the understanding of transport activity, operations and use, and to develop skills and best practice among transport professionals and decision-makers.

LRN is a special interest group of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT – UK) which brings together academics and practitioners in the fields of logistics and supply chain management (SCM). Its annual conference is a major event and provides participants with a forum for the discussion of the latest thinking in the area. NITL has long been active in the LRN and hosted the annual conference in 2004.

The theme of the conference was ‘Towards the sustainable supply chain: balancing the needs of business, economy and the environment’. NITL was represented at the conference by Edward Sweeney and Juan Carlos Carrasco Gimenez. The paper presented by NITL staff was entitled ‘Green supply chain initiatives in transport and logistics service industry: an exploratory case study analysis’ co-authored by Pietro Evangelista (IRAT-CNR and Department of Management Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy), Edward Sweeney (NITL), Gabriella Ferruzzi (Department of Management Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy) and Juan Carlos Carrasco Gimenez (NITL). A paper entitled ‘Towards a Multidimensional Framework for Understanding Outsourcing – A Contingency Model for Outsourcing Effectiveness’ was also presented at the conference by Margaret Farrell, Senior Lecturer in DIT’s College of Business and NITL Module Leader for Outsourcing.