Nowadays, integrating sustainability aspects is becoming a significant process that every organization incorporates into the supply chain. As transport and logistics are significant contributors to carbon emissions, it is crucial to incorporate green practices into vehicle routing problems. In this study, we present a review of a variant of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) in distribution logistics, involving the ecological aspect of reducing the release of CO2. This novel NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem is named the Green Vehicle Routing Problem with Pick-up and Delivery (PD) with Time Windows (GVRPPDTW). This study presents a review of the GVRPPDTW, particularly focusing on the use of metaheuristics, highlighting the potential of these approaches in addressing this critical problem. Finally, the paper identifies the research gaps and discusses potential areas for future research, including developing more adaptive metaheuristics algorithms for emerging optimization challenges.