The relationship between EMSs and GSCM practices has potentially complementary and significant
implications for an organization’s environmental sustainability, because together they offer a more comprehensive
means of defining and establishing sustainability among networks of business organizations.
However, when EMSs are adopted in the absence of GSCM, environmental benefits are likely to diminish.
This is because the organization’s supply chain network does not share its environmental goals, and
environmental sustainability of any organization is impossible without incorporating GSCM practices
(Preuss, 2005).