The study reviews existing literature in a quest to establish an integrated taxonomy, conceptualise sustainable digital marketing (SDM), and map future research avenues. Using the scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature review (SPAR-4-SLR) and the bibliometric analysis and theories-context-characteristics-and-methodologies (TCCM) framework, it synthesises insights from 2007 to 2024. Findings show an exponential growth in SDM scholarship, reflecting its rising academic and practical impact. Socially, the research influences sustainable product consumption, eco-friendly behaviours, corporate social responsibility (CSR), social equity, environmental education, and sustainable business models, all of which are essential to realising the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Practically, businesses use SDM to improve brand reputation, gain a competitive advantage over their rivals, and ensure regulatory compliance, innovation and growth. The study unearths innovative emerging trends, development of new frameworks, impact assessment, identification of challenges and opportunities, cross disciplinary insights with significant advancement of effective professional practice and impactful theory development. It highlights how SDM integrates sustainability into marketing and technology theories (such as grounded theory, theory of social exchange, theory of planned behaviour, technology acceptance model, network systems theory, strategic orientation theory, diffusion of innovation theory, consumer culture theory, triple bottom line, sustainable development theory), advocating a forward-looking, responsibility-driven approach, proposing new frameworks, and identifying cross-disciplinary opportunities.

The present consumer behavior is manipulated by “fast fashion”, where purchasing new, trendy, affordable clothes is preferred over recycling old ones. This changing mannerism has escalated the GHG emissions from the fashion industry. Energy-intensive raw material production, preparation, and processing contribute to considerable emissions. The management of the returned goods from the primary market and further processing through the secondary outlets indulge in reverse logistics. In this paper, efforts are made to minimize the total cost and the carbon emission amount during the process of managing the return articles from the primary market to the reverse distribution center, further processing of the articles at the secondary outlet, and the return of the unsold or excess articles from the secondary outlet. Reverse cross-docking has been implemented in managing the return articles, while environmental concerns over GHG emissions have been addressed by investing in green technology under a strict carbon cap policy. In this research, return articles from the primary and secondary markets, rework of the returned articles, and disposal of the impaired returned articles have been considered. The carbon emission cost at all stages of transportation, rework, or disposal has also been incorporated into this model. A constrained mixed integer linear programming model is proposed and solved considering green investment. A numerical example has been formulated to investigate the effect of green technology on the total cost. The results portray that, though the total cost increases by nearly 2% due to investment in green technology, it ensures a considerable drop of 23% in the carbon emission amount. Also, the result is successful in establishing that reverse cross-docking is a better option than traditional warehousing in terms of minimizing the cost.