ABSTRACT:Supply chain sustainability has emerged as an indispensable research agenda for governments, industriesand non-governmental organizations. Due to the country's status as a developing nation, cold supply chain management in India is still in its infancy.Today, due to health consciousness and a greater focus on sustainability, customers are demandingfresh, toxic free, highly eco-friendly food products. However, sustainable cold chains have not yet received sufficientattention throughout the world. Therefore, this paper seeks to address cold chain sustainability issues. After an extensive review of the literature and after discussions with cold chain practitioners, we have formulated ten sustainable cold chain constructs. We have then taken this proposed framework and validated it with an empirical study of the Indian food industry. This study includes several alarming findings. Specifically in India: i) environmental issues and social responsibility are not as important as other supplier selection criteria; ii)social responsibility ranks 18 th among 19 food supplier selection criteria; iii) low carbon emissionsareviewed as a less important value added trait in comparison with other traits (this means that in India buyers focus more on individual and immediate benefits rather than longer lasting advantages); iv) life cycle analyses, renewable energy sources and passive cold chains are the least often implemented cold chain practices; v) the government usually encouragescompanies to adopt and implement sustainability in their operations, but in actual practice, training programs that provide guidance in terms of sustainability are less rigorous in comparison to the actual requirements; but on the bright side; vi) business sustainability builds trust between companies and all of their stakeholders and thus contributes to strong chain relationships.