EVALUATION OF THE GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF A STEELMAKER BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS

Purpose: Given the environmental impacts revolving around energy consumption and CO 2 emissions generated by the steel industry, the main goal of this study, which was based on environmental quality indicators, was to evaluate the bases of green supply chain management in the steel sector. Theoretical Framework: Environmental indicators have been designed to measure the degree of a company’s involvement in sustainable practices. Such diagnosis enables the company to focus on reducing environmental impacts through the planning and development of monitoring measures and tools. Method: We conducted a case study focused on a steel company by applying a 39-question questionnaire scored on the Likert scale to 30 of the company’s employees. Results and Conclusions: The employees’ responses revealed the current degree of involvement of the company in environmental issues and the ecological practices most widely used and valued by the respondents. According to these results, the target company stands out positively on sustainability-focused internal management. Research Implications: The topics addressed in this study about management practices, environmental policies, environmental performance, ecodesign, and external pressures can provide insight to steel industry managers in analyzing the current stage of involvement of their organizations in green supply chain management. Originality/Value: The questionnaire, containing 39 questions divided into five categories, can be applied in future studies to shed more light on the topic of sustainability in the steel industry and similar industries


INTRODUCTION
Until the 18th century, production was basically artisanal.But the onset of the industrial revolution changed this scenario.Progressive technological development and the advent of industrial machinery increased the speed and volume of production.However, it is consensual that energy and the environment are closely linked.Therefore, due to skyrocketing production, the environment was severely impacted.Air pollution, waste production, and lack of resources became problems that required solutions, as society increasingly demanded environmental accountability in commercial activities (García-Sánchez et al., 2020).
In this context, which characterized the second phase of the industrial revolution, steel was considered one of the most important and useful metals.Even today steel remains the most widely used metal in the world, with production and consumption rates that have consistently increased, especially in the last 10 years (Conejo et al., 2020).Steel is an important structural input in many important industries, such as the construction and automotive industries.Because steel constitutes the supply chain of the production of consumer goods, it has an analogous role to other intermediate products, such as energy resources and other building materials (Muslemani et al., 2021).
Among the industrial sector, the steel industry is the world's biggest energy consumer (Conejo et al., 2020;Quader et al., 2015), also recognized as one of the greatest sources of direct CO2 emissions (Dhunna et al., 2014).Thus, steel production is a highly energy-consuming process that generates significant environmental impacts, the reason for which the concept of sustainability has permeated the industry.Sustainability, in this context, has been broadly accepted and is supposed to include economic, environmental, and social aspects, which should not be considered separately (Schäfer & Löwer, 2021).In the last decades, with the growing importance attributed to sustainability, several methodologies, tools, norms, and regulations were developed to promote the implementation of its principles in industrial companies, such as steelmakers (Rossi et al., 2016).
Due to the urgent nature of this topic, the concept of green supply chain management (GSCM) emerged, aiming to reduce environmental impacts caused by traditional production lines.This process has been defined as a set of practices implemented to pursue an environmentally focused strategy (Stekelorum et al., 2021).Besides, there is ever-growing pressure from stakeholders and widespread public opinion on the importance of green practices.This has led many organizations to implement green practices along their production stages.
One of the ways to measure the involvement of these companies in GSCM sustainability practices is to use indicators.These indicators are, basically, measurable quantities that provide information on the development and trends of phenomena and processes in quantitative and qualitative terms (Vavrova, 2020).Environmental indicators significantly help in planning and setting GSCM policy goals, including monitoring their implementation and developing follow-up measures and instruments to achieve them in several policy and strategy documents (Vavrova, 2020).Environmental indicators are also an extensive source of information on the state and development of the environment, as well as aspects related to public opinion.
In this context, this paper focuses on the issue of sustainability in the steel industry and aims to evaluate green supply chain management in a multinational company of the steel sector based on indicators of ecological and sustainable practices.
With the increasing importance attributed to this topic, the relevance of this study lies, among other aspects, in that GSCM (i) can confer competitive advantages to corporations that incorporate it (Handfield and Nichols, 1999), (ii) aims to alleviate pressure from the government by enhancing environmental performance (De Oliveira et al., 2021), (iii) promotes cost reductions, and (iv) improves customer services (Guide, 2003).
To explore this topic, this paper is organized in the following order: section 2 brings a literature review about GSCM, environmental management systems, and environmental indicators of the ISO standard; section 3 addresses methodological research questions; section 4 presents the results from the empirical research; section 5 concludes the study by summarizing its main conclusions and suggestions for future research.The reference list is presented at the end of the study.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This section will address the theoretical bases of green supply chain management (GSCM), environmental management systems, and indicators.

Green supply chain management (GSCM)
The advent of the industrial revolution brought along rapid economic development.However, it also led to excessive resource consumption and environmental degradation due to the negative impacts caused by production processes (Shen et al., 2020).During the last decades, environmental pollution and the countermeasures taken to mitigate it have attracted worldwide concern.A lot of attention has been devoted to this problem, not only from governments but also from consumers (Li et al., 2021).The competitive market, customers' needs, and environmental pressures stimulate the development of innovative products.After all, the current state of the planet has motivated companies and private individuals to pursue practices that contribute to environmental sustainability (Reche et al., 2020).In this sense, the importance of green growth for the economy has become a point of consensus in every country across the world (Shen et al., 2020).
In this scenario, the business sector has been facing constant changes.The market is everincreasingly dynamic, both in terms of technology and ecology and in terms of political, economic, cultural, and social changes (Phillip et al., 2017).In this context, the term green supply chain management (GSCM) emerged, describing a mechanism that connects the supply chain in terms of the environmental activities involved in it, aiming to improve the entire chain's environmental and economic performances and, ultimately, reducing associated environmental impacts.
To Reche et al. (2020), integrating the several links involved in supply chain management allows the company that is developing the products to search for sustainable alternatives related to design, sales, and promotion and distribution plans, in order to meet the customers' expectations.Srivastava (2007) states that the main goal of GSCM and the main metric of its effectiveness owe to its capacity to improve the environmental performance of companies that adopt it.For Ghosh et al. (2021), its main focus is environmental sustainability, from supplier to final customer and manufacturer.
GSCM involves a broad range of activities, including green purchasing, managing the product's lifecycle (involving suppliers, manufacturers, and customers) and, finally, "closing the loop" (reverse logistics) (Ribeiro et al., 2021).Li et al. (2021) highlight some stages of green products' lifecycles, such as the structural design of the supply chain, carbon emission and pollution control, economic and environmental performance, and so forth.On the other hand, Li et al. (2021) highlight that the production costs of green products are higher, and the prices are more expensive than those of traditional products.This happens because, in general, the development of new technologies requires a greater amount of financial resources to cover research and development costs, equipment renewal costs, among others (Li et al., 2021).In this perspective, a green supply chain is significantly different than a traditional supply chain.
On the other hand, studies such as Guide's (2003) suggest that, given other aspects of the production process, GSCM practices help to decrease costs and to advance customer services, which is reflected in environmental performance improvements.Indeed, Yadav and Pathak (2017) showed that most young clients are prone to buying green (ecological) products manufactured in an ecologically sound way, in order to cause the least possible damage to the environment.To fit into this situation, several producers are attuned to the production of green products (Ghosh et al., 2021).
Regarding regulatory aspects, GSCM practices can help to promote the environmental capacity of a supply chain and to ensure that environmental regulations are met (Bhatia & Gangwani, 2020).To Shen et al. (2020), it is evident that environmental regulations are an important governmental tool.More specifically, they can improve companies' economic and environmental development by providing incentives to green technological innovations (Shen et al., 2020).Also, products or processes aligned with sustainable environmentalism help to develop the idea of ecodesign, a tool that embeds environmental requirements into a product's development process (Schäfer & Löwer, 2021) and is often regarded as one of the most promising approaches to sustainable production (Chun et al., 2018).
In this context, aiming to stimulate green production, governments of several countries are also creating an eco-labeling policy.This policy is based on a green standard created by the government itself.When a product meets such standards, it becomes eligible for a governmentapproved eco-label that can be attached to the product's package (Gao et al., 2021).The display of this label can induce environmentally concerned individuals to acquire the product (Chang et al., 2019).

Environmental management systems and ISO indicators
During the last few years, the environment has become a target of debate and discussions.Technical norms have been developed and improved upon to prevent environmental impacts.Several organizations continue to improve product development methodologies (and processes), towards reducing waste generation and improving the management of potential environmental risks.In this sense, an environmental management system (EMS) focuses on a company's activities with potentially negative impacts on the environment and human health (Kopackova & Zelena, 2021).As shown in Figure 1, EMS has the following goals: to identify, assess, and prevent environmental risks; to identify production or process management gaps; and to define potential alternatives to improve environmental performance (Gazoulit & Oubal, 2021).EMS is becoming a standard within companies and its implementation is also one of the purchase requirements for many customers.In general, EMS has focused on the environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability, with limited inclusion of social sustainability (Kristensen et al., 2021).According to Kopackova and Zelena (2021), EMS demands the organization to monitor and identify environmental impacts in order to improve reduction tools (reducing the amount of pollutants on air, water, rocks, soil, organisms, ecosystems, and energy), information tools (to inform customers and other stakeholders about its ecologically sound approach), and educational tools (to ensure that environmental issues are adequately understood throughout the company).EMS encourages the companies to go beyond regulatory compliance and to strive for continuous improvements in environmental performance through a cycle of planning, doing, verifying, and acting (ISO, 2015), therefore providing a systematic and structured tool to manage and reduce environmental impacts (Kristensen et al., 2021).
In order to regulate and label the EMS implementation, ISO 14001 provided organizations with a systematic approach to manage environmental performance, meet compliance obligations, and support communications on their environmental aspects (Kristensen et al., 2021).Indeed, adopting the ISO 14001 leads to better environmental performance (Mungai et al., 2020).This happens due to the establishment of useful internal environmental goals that are constantly supervised, to the training

Planning of the environmental performance assessment
Selection of suitable indicators for the environmental performance assessment

TO PERFORM
Information and data use

Data collection
Data conversion and analysis

Information assessment
Report and communication

TO CHECK AND TO ACT
Critical analysis and improvement of the environmental performance assessment of the people involved, to the increased information sharing of good practices, and the rigorous collaboration among participating companies (Mungai et al., 2020).
The ISO standard also establishes guidelines to assess environmental performance, which allows a company to assess its internal performance, as well as to compare it to that of other organizations and industry sectors.Environmental performance assessments consider operational indicators, management decisions, wider environmental impacts, and the relevance, integrity, consistency, accuracy, and transparency of the data that are being reported (Falqi et al., 2020).Besides, the standard describes three types of indicators that may be used in environmental performance assessments: environmental conditions indicators, operational performance indicators and management performance indicators (Falqi et al., 2020).
An organization should select a sufficient number of relevant and comprehensive indicators to assess its environmental performance.Some of these indicators should also reflect the nature and operations of the organization.Thus, the choice of indicators will determine which data should be used.To support this effort, organizations can opt to use readily available data that were either collected by themselves or others (ISO 14031).Lastly, an organization can identify a relationship between its activities and the condition of one aspect of the local environment, and choose to develop its own indicators to aid in an environmental performance assessment that takes its capacities, interests, and needs into consideration (ISO 14031, p. 33).

METHOD
Although this paper was based on literature review and survey-type research, it mostly satisfies the definition of a study case, as in the research conducted by Santos et al. (2018), Dias et al. (2021) and Machado and De Oliveira (2021).A study case is an empirical study that investigates a given phenomenon (usually contemporary) within a real-life context where the boundaries are blurred between the phenomenon and the context to which it belongs (Miguel, 2007).According to Yin (2001), study cases usually use more than one technique for data collection, using both "people data" and "paper data", which should originate from the convergence between the observations obtained in the different procedures.
Regarding the use of more than one technique for data collection, this research had three main stages: the first was a literature review, the second was document analysis and participant observation, and the third was the survey.The first stage sought to delve into the main research topics addressed herein, namely GSCM, environmental management systems, and ISO 14000 indicators.This stage helps to increase the visibility of these topics (Meredith, 1993) and contributes to the investigation conducted in this study (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002).It also helped to develop the 11 questions on ecological design (ecodesign) used on the survey stage.In the second stage, several departments of the investigated company were researched during five months, by analyzing documents and reports, participating in meetings, and observing work processes.This stage was essential to develop the 28 other questions (out of a total of 39) used for data collection.In other words, the information gathered in the two previous stages helped to build the necessary knowledge to elaborate the questions on management practices, environmental policy, environmental performance, ecodesign, and external pressures.
Lastly, in the third stage of the research, a survey was conducted with 30 employees (technicians, engineers, and analysts) of the steel company.In survey research, according to Gil (2019), information or data are obtained from a group of people involved in the study problem.Afterward, through quantitative analysis of the collected data, conclusions can be drawn.Here, a questionnaire containing five closed-ended questions based on the Likert scale was used as the instrument of data collection.It used the following scoring scale: completely agree (5 points); agree (4 points); neutral (3 points); disagree (2 points); completely disagree (1 point).According to Lionello et al. (2020), the Likert scale is often used in the social sciences to record people's attitudes and opinions.This scale is composed of an uneven number (usually 5 or 7) of ordered categories.Each point of the scale represents the degree to which the interviewee agrees or disagrees with a specific statement or construction, which is then typically assigned to a value.
The 39 questions of the questionnaire were segmented and organized into five distinct blocks to facilitate the interpretation, participation, and answers of the respondents.Table 1 shows the number of questions included by each of these blocks.

Information on the target institution
This research was performed in a steel production complex that operates in different sectors of the economy, such as steel production, mining, logistics, cement, and energy.Founded in the 1940s, this is one of the largest steel companies in Brazil and Latin America.Currently, the company has in its assets: one integrated steel mill; five industrial units (two of them abroad); iron ore, limestone, dolomite, and tin mines; a large flat steel distributor; port terminals; railway holdings; and interests in two hydro-electrical power plants.Its management is based on the confidence and potential that Brazil deposits in the steel industry.Currently, the complex has twenty thousand employees.
Regarding the sustainability aspect, the company holds an ISO 14001 certificate and, consequently, maintains an environmental management system (EMS).Having steel as its final product, the company uses scrap metal as raw material, showing that it already incorporates environmental aspects in its production chain.
Aiming to faithfully assess the company's supply chain management based on environmental aspects, this research analyzed five indicators: internal management, environmental policy, environmental performance, ecodesign, and external pressures from the government and society.
All the indicators shown in this study highlight the practices related to their respective average scores (descriptive statistics), their coefficient of reliability (Cronbach's Alpha), the value stipulated for the non-rejection of the null hypothesis, their t-value, and their p-value.

Information on the group of respondents
The results of this study were obtained through questionnaires responded by 30 employees of three areas of the steel complex: production, environment, and quality (shown in Table 3, along with their sample sizes).The participants able to answer the questionnaire held managerial-level positions, such as technicians, engineers, and analysts, who could directly contribute to the goals of this study.

Data analysis
To analyze the collected data, we arranged the participants' answers in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.We then performed descriptive statistical analyses, calculated the reliability coefficient, and performed the hypothesis test for each indicator category.
We used descriptive statistics to obtain the results based on the analysis of their averages.The average values were then classified in decreasing order, from most values to least valued practices by the company.After individually analyzing the practices on the questionnaire, we performed a general analysis to obtain the most valued sustainable attitudes by the target supply chain.
Then, to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, we calculated a coefficient of reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) for each category.Cronbach's Alpha coefficient estimates how uniformly the items contribute to the non-weighted average of the instrument, varying on a scale between 0 and 1 (Maroco & Marques, 2001).This index constitutes the measurement systems that belong to quality statistics.It is better known as the average coefficient of all internal consistency estimates that could be obtained if all scale divisions were made (Cronbach, 1951).Likewise, internal consistency determines the reliability of an instrument because the lower the variability of a given item in a sample, the lower the measurement error associated with it (Pasquali, 2003).
The hypothesis tests were used in the analysis through the t-test for averages with unknown population standard deviations, aided by the calculation of the critical value and the p-value of the hypothesis test.A hypothesis test is a statistical method that allows a decision to be made (to accept or reject the null hypothesis -H0) between two or more hypotheses employing data from an experiment.Thus, they aim to provide a methodology that allows researchers to verify whether sample data support a given (statistical) hypothesis (Bussab & Morettin, 2012).
Besides, according to Stevenson (2001), the t distribution is the most widely used when the population's standard deviation is unknown.The same author states that the t-distribution is required if the number of samples is equal to or less than 30.Thus, considering our sample size (n = 30) and the fact that the standard deviation of our target population is unknown, we chose to use the tdistribution, as it allows inferences to be drawn regarding population averages.
Figure 2 summarizes the present section, illustrating the methodological paths taken.

RESULTS
To better organize the study results, each indicator is presented in a separate subsection below.Internal management indicator

Internal management indicator
Table 3 presents the results related to internal management practices adopted by the organization, listed along with their respective average points, Cronbach's Alpha, t-test, and p-value for the category.The company monitors and reduces the generation of dangerous waste and industrial effluents 4.17 The company encourages its managers to commit to sustainable management of the supply chain 3.97 The company focuses on waste reduction 3.93 The company monitors and reduces the consumption of natural resources 3.79 The company encourages cooperation among employees and/or among sectors for environmental improvements

3.69
The company provides environmental awareness training to its employees 3.66 The company aims to use cleaner and renewable technologies 3.62 Source: Produced by the authors (2021) The internal management indicator shows that, among the internal management sustainable practices adopted by the company, compliance to the environmental legislation is the most recognizably relevant from the respondents' viewpoint.This concern owes to the fact that many industries, especially large ones, have been the target of criticism and government pressure to comply with the current environmental legislation.The indicator also shows that the organization has continuous monitoring and seeks to reduce the generation of dangerous waste and industrial effluents.Moreover, managers constantly stimulate commitment to more sustainable management of the supply chain.
As negative aspects, the indicator points to the need to monitor and reduce the consumption of natural resources and the lack of availability of environmental awareness training for all employees.This type of training could help to incorporate a sustainable culture into the daily lives of the employees but, currently, they only occur in specific areas of the company.
The hypothesis test for this category was two-tailed.The statistical results showed that the practices related to this indicator are well accepted by the organization, according to the respondents.The t-test result (-1.16) fell within the threshold of acceptance of the null hypothesis with 95% of reliability.In this sense, the statistical tests can corroborate the previous analyses, which indicate that the company is integrated into this new methodology of supply chain management, especially considering the growing competition within this sector and the growing relevance that sustainable actions by the industry have attained with globalization.The p-value result further confirmed this analysis because, as stated by Levine et al. (2011), when this probability is greater than or equal to the significance level (0.05), one does not reject the null hypothesis.The Cronbach's Alpha value (0.832) corroborates the internal consistency of the questionnaire, since, as classified by Landis and Koch (1977), when it is higher than 0.8, questionnaire reliability is considered near perfect, meaning that the obtained data are credible.

Environmental policy indicator
Table 4 presents the results regarding the environmental policies adopted by the company.The company communicates its environmental policy to the general public 4.48 The company often performs internal environmental audits 4.21 The company highlights the importance of the ISO 14001 Certification 4.17 The company includes environmental specifications on product design 4.07 The company maintains open communication channels related to socio-environmental issues 3.90 The company develops and encourages programs targeted at reducing environmental impacts 3.66 Source: Produced by the authors (2021) This indicator shows that the company disseminates and provides its environmental policy to its employees, despite not having environmental policy training for all of them, as shown by the internal management indicator.
Another highlight is the relevance given to internal audits.This aspect is linked to the increase in inspections and the search to reduce incidents, especially in the industrial sector, which further reinforces its efforts to reduce non-compliances related to these audits.
The hypothesis test applied to this category was two-tailed.The t-test result, which fell within the acceptance threshold of the null hypothesis (-2.04 < H0 < 2.04), indicated that the null hypothesis should be accepted.The p-value shown in the table corroborates the previous analysis, because, as stated by Sweeney et al. (2013), with a p-value higher than the significance level, one does not reject the null hypothesis.The result also indicates that, although the information obtained from the test was mostly positive, the company still has aspects that need improvement, such as the maintenance of its communication channels that deal with socio-environmental issues and incentive to programs that aim to reduce environmental impacts.The Cronbach's Alpha results obtained in this category indicate high reliability of this result, as with the internal management indicator, analyzed previously.

Environmental performance indicator
Table 5 presents the results related to environmental performance practices.

Practices most valued by the companies
Average points

Cronbach' s Alpha
Non-rejected null hypothesis

T p-value
The company seeks to reduce the frequency of environmental accidents 4.07 0.913 4 -2.625 0.011 The company seeks to reduce the consumption of natural resources (e.g., water, energy, gasoline, natural gas, etc.)

3.79
The company strives for continuous improvements in its processes considering environmental aspects

3.72
The company aims to reduce the consumption of dangerous/harmful/toxic materials 3.69 The company incorporates sustainability and socio-environmental responsibility in its decisions

3.62
The company seeks to reduce atmospheric emissions 3.62 The company seeks to reduce wastewater generation 3.59 The company reduces the generation of solid waste 3.34 Source: Produced by the authors (2021) Environmental performance presented the lowest average among the five indicators.The most valued practices in this category are related to an effort to reduce environmental accidents and to better utilize natural resources.
The hypothesis test applied to this category was left-tailed.Considering the t-test results and the acceptance threshold (-1.699 < H0), the null hypothesis for this indicator was rejected.The pvalue results reiterated the previous analysis.Because the p-value is lower than the significance level (0.05), the null hypothesis was rejected (Levine et al., 2011).Therefore, the alternative hypothesis, which determines the average as lower than 4, was accepted.This result shows that the company's environmental performance needs improvement, especially regarding the points of the questionnaire that obtained low average scores.The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for this category sustains the credibility of the questionnaire because, as with the previous indicators, its high value indicates nearperfect consistency, as stated by Landis and Koch (1977).

Ecodesign indicator
Table 6 presents the results of the ecodesign practices adopted by the company.

Practices most valued by the companies
Average points

Cronbach' s Alpha
Non-rejected null hypothesis

T p-value
The most sustainable design entails greater competitive advantage to the company 4.03 0.825 4 -2.8900.005 The company aims to reuse, recycle, and remanufacture materials during production 4.00 Adopting sustainable design is an innovative action by the company 3.97 The company strives to develop environmentally correct product packages 3.72 Sustainable design allows the company to reduce costs 3.72 The company seeks involvement with its clients in the project development stages 3.69 The company analyzes the lifecycle of its products 3.69 The company invests in environmental labeling for its products 3.69 The company seeks to reduce or avoid the use of dangerous substances in its production processes 3.62 The company is concerned with the purposes given to its products 3.59 The company strives to optimize its processes and operations for environmental improvements 3.55 Source: Produced by the authors (2021) Sustainable design was considered a highlight by the respondents as a factor that can contribute to increasing the company's competitive advantage.Most respondents believe that this aspect deserves attention as an innovative action to be implemented.This is considered one of the critical points of the organization, evidencing little concern in environmental labeling aspects.
The hypothesis test result was left-tailed.Considering the t-test result and the acceptance threshold (-1.699 < H0), the null hypothesis was rejected.The p-value result (0.005) validates the ttest analysis because, since it is below the significance level (0.05), the null hypothesis should be rejected (Sweeney et al., 2013).These results indicate that the organization lacks a focus on environmentally sustainable product design among its production cornerstones.
It should be highlighted that some of the questions in this indicator were addressed in a way that the interviewees could judge whether they would be effective for the company to implement them in the future, given the current global scenario.The hypothesis test in this category helped to conclude the need to prioritize an assessment of the company's production chain, giving more weight to socio-environmental aspects.Overall, these aspects are related to the purposes given to its products, the adequate disposal of dangerous substances used in the production process, and, lastly, to the importance of investing in environmental labeling.The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient (0.825), shown in Table 6, corroborates the questionnaire's reliability which, according to Landis and Koch (1977), is considered near perfect.

External pressures from the government and society indicator
Lastly, Table 7 presents the results related to external policy practices.The company faces pressures from the government, which expects improvements and solutions for its environmental impacts 4.17 The company considers significant the audits performed by regulatory agencies 4.10 The company faces pressures from the government to adopt environmental certifications 3.90 The company develops environmental awareness projects/actions with its employees 3.86 Source: Produced by the authors (2021) As shown in Table 7, the development of environmental awareness projects is one of the points that need to be expanded, according to the respondents.
The hypothesis test applied to this category was left-tailed.Considering the t-test result and the acceptance threshold of the null hypothesis (-1.699 < H0), the hypothesis was rejected in this category.The p-value result validated the previous analysis because, as it is lower than the significance level (0.05), the null hypothesis should be rejected.As a consequence, the alternative hypothesis, which establishes the average as lower than 4, is accepted and corroborates the previous statements.Environmental awareness among employees is essential so that the organization can work together for improvement, both for environmental and economic aspects.The reliability coefficient (Cronbach's Alpha) obtained for this category was 0.72, therefore, the questionnaire is considered substantially credible, according to Landis and Koch (1977).
Lastly, it should be highlighted that the steel industry is a supplier of essential material (steel) for automotive assembly companies.Therefore, they must be involved in socio-environmental aspects if they wish to gain competitive advantages in the market.We highlight that the ISO 14001 certification became a prerequisite in the management of sustainable suppliers in assembly companies, as described by Koplin, Seuring and Mesterharm (2007) in their study on the relationship between suppliers and environmental management of the supply chain.

DISCUSSION
The results presented in Tables 3-7 show that the target company considers sustainable actions in its production chain and that environmental issues are often addressed, communicated, and disseminated the company's communication channels.Despite this positive result, there is still much to be done, as we address separately for each indicator below: • Internal management indicator: among the internal management sustainable practices, compliance to the environmental legislation is regarded as the most relevant by the company's employees.This concern owes to the fact that the industries, especially large ones, have been the target of criticism and pressures from the government for them to comply with the current legislation.Seuring et al. (2008) cited the problems that the companies can present if they do not comply with the current legislation, especially damages to its image and sales.Another fact that should be highlighted is that the organization already has continuous monitoring to reduce the generation of dangerous waste and industrial effluents.On the other hand, a negative aspect observed in our study concerns the lack of environmental awareness training for all employees, since only specific areas are contemplated.This could be an opportunity for improvement because, if every employee received such training, the culture of sustainability could advance beyond the organization and into the daily lives of its employees.• Environmental policy indicator: the list of indicators addressed in this category achieved the highest score.The Environmental Management System certification is considered highly relevant for sustainable development in the company.The literature on this topic shows that the ISO 14001 standard became a prerequisite for sustainable supply management in assembly companies (Koplin, Seuring e Mestrharm, 2007).Because steelmakers are the main supplier of steel to assembly companies (i.e., their main supplier of their main raw material), it is important for steelmaking companies to be socio-environmentally concerned, an aspect that can increase their competitive advantage.On the other hand, the least valued practices in this category are related to the development and promotion of programs targeting environmental impact reductions.In this sense, internal projects for the company's employees and external projects for the public would improve its image for both the general population and for its clients.
• Environmental performance indicator: in this category, the greatest problems appointed by the company's employees are related to wastewater generation.This is aggravated by the fact that the company is located near the margins of one of the main rivers of its region.Our study also revealed a low focus on solid waste reduction, which indicates that, despite its concern with environmental management, the company does not assess the lifecycle of its products along the production chain taking environmental aspects and proper waste disposal into consideration.These hurdles have the potential to compromise environmental management, because recycling wastewater, reusing solid waste, and employing environmentally safe disposal methods determine an organization's environmental performance (Mungai et al., 2020).• Ecodesign indicator: Constant global changes and the companies' needs to adapt by proposing environmentally friendly production methods evoked some insights considered extremely important by the employees interviewed in our study, such as the adoption of sustainable design.According to these respondents, in a long-term perspective, adopting sustainable design would reduce costs, generate considerable environmental gains, and improve the image of the company.However, both the conception and the implementation of ecodesign require a strong focus on change management (Pereira et al., 2020).This might be the reason why the company scored low on ecodesign, even though it values material reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing (e.g., along the production process, we observed that the company buys scrap metal from external suppliers and reuses several materials in its production process).In this perspective, ecodesign has a great potential to be incorporated and explored by the company.As shown by Chun et al. (2018), producer-oriented ecodesign indices can help to overcome the hurdles that limit its implementation.• External pressures indicator (government and society): the most important practices appointed by the company were those related to the pressure from society for the company to improve its processes regarding environmental aspects.This result agrees with those found by Jazairy and von Haartman (2020), who observed growing institutional pressures to adopt GSCM.Other than pressures from society, the frequent audits performed by government agencies to ensure environmental compliance also contributed to this result.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
In face of growing environmental concerns, the last few decades were marked by an increase in environmental awareness in society, governments, and organizations.This movement culminated in the development of the concept of Green Supply Chain Management, which aims to reduce the environmental impacts otherwise caused by traditional production lines.
As one of the most important energy consumers among industry sectors worldwide, the steel industry was also compelled to implement a range of GSCM practices into its production chain.By incorporating sustainability in its supply chain, the company not only meets regulatory demands but also increases its competitive advantage among clients and investors.In this sense, one of the GSCM practices adopted by steel industry companies is maintaining an environmental management system (EMS), in order to focus on potentially impactful activities.
In order to regulate and label EMS implementation, the ISO 14001 standard provides a systematic and indicator-based approach for the organizations to manage and assess their environmental performances.According to the standard, an organization should select a sufficient number of relevant and comprehensible indicators to assess its environmental performance, considering the relationship between its activities and the condition of a specific component of the local environment.The organization can also choose or develop its own indicators to aid in an environmental performance assessment that also takes its capacities, interests, and needs into consideration.
In this paper, we aimed to assess green supply chain management based on environmental indicators in an ISO-certified steelmaking company.To this end, our study case employed a questionnaire based on the Likert scale.We then performed descriptive statistical analyses, calculated the reliability coefficient, and employed hypothesis tests on the data collected with the questionnaire.The indicators considered herein were internal management, environmental policy and performance, ecodesign, and external pressures from the government and society.Our results evidenced the current degree of involvement of the target company in environmental issues, as well as the ecological practices most employed and valued by it.Based on our results, we conclude that the organization stands out in the internal management aspect, with a focus on sustainability.On the other hand, other practices require more attention from the company, namely establishing communication channels dedicated to the company's environmental policies, monitoring reductions in the availability of natural resources, and designing sustainable products.
Regarding sustainable design, we highlight that, other than raising environmental awareness, ecodesign-based products also require a modern supply chain.In the steel industry case, an assessment of the current products' lifecycle is needed, as well as a focus on post-consumption waste disposal.In terms of the environmental labels, pursuing new certifications is a valid option for obtaining better competitive advantages.Among the highlights in terms of sustainability in the steel industry, ISO 14006:2011 (Guidelines for incorporating ecodesign) provides guidelines that improve product quality in an environmentally friendly manner.Adopting this certification can generate economic benefits and promote innovation and creativity.
Lastly, because our study was focused on a local sample (in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), its results cannot be generalized to all companies of the steel industry sector, but it serves as a reference to guide other companies of this sector.Regarding future research avenues, sustainabilityrelated research in steelmakers of other sizes and companies of other sectors is recommended.This future research could focus on analyzing the green management of other supply chains and the functioning of their environmental management based on indicators that apply to other scenarios.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Steps involved in the research Source: Produced by the authors (2021)

Table 1 -
Number of questions related to the research topic.

Table 2 -
Population and sample size.

Table 3 -
Results regarding the internal management indicator.

Table 4 -
Results regarding environmental policy practices.

Table 5 -
Results regarding environmental performance practices.

Table 7 -
Results regarding external policy practices.