The science of sustainable supply chains

Abstract

Recent advances in the science and technology of global supply chain management offer near–real-time demand-response systems for decision-makers across production networks. Technology is helping propel “fast fashion” and “lean manufacturing,” so that companies are better able to deliver products consumers want most. Yet companies know much less about the environmental and social impacts of their production networks. The failure to measure and manage these impacts can be explained in part by limitations in the science of sustainability measurement, as well as by weaknesses in systems to translate data into information that can be used by decision-makers inside corporations and government agencies. There also remain continued disincentives for firms to measure and pay the full costs of their supply chain impacts. I discuss the current state of monitoring, measuring, and analyzing information related to supply chain sustainability, as well as progress that has been made in translating this information into systems to advance more sustainable practices by corporations and consumers. Better data, decision-support tools, and incentives will be needed to move from simply managing supply chains for costs, compliance, and risk reduction to predicting and preventing unsustainable practices.

Bright spots among the world’s coral reefs

“…For example, given the important influence of markets in our analysis, reef managers, donor organisations, conservation groups, and coastal communities could improve sustainability by developing interventions that dampen the negative influence of markets on reef systems. A portfolio of market interventions, including eco-labelling and sustainable harvesting certifications, fisheries improvement projects, and value chain interventions have been developed within large-scale industrial fisheries to increase access to markets for seafood that is sourced sustainably [21][22][23] . Although there is considerable scope for adapting these interventions to artisanal coral reef fisheries in both local and regional markets, effectively dampening the negative influence of markets may also require developing novel interventions that address the range of ways in which markets can lead to overexploitation.…”

Improving global environmental management with standard corporate reporting

“…Despite technological advances to supply chain management, methodological shortcomings of sustainability measurement and a dearth of decisionsupport tools hinder corporate analysis of environmental impacts and risks (65). According to a recent survey of corporate professionals (n = 700), the integration of sustainability into core business functions remains a considerable challenge (66).…”

“…Rather, the scientific community might generate and regularly update indices of ecosystemcollapse risks according to geography, much as the IPCC currently updates and revises its climate models and risks of negative impacts every 4 years. Similarly, inventory data on development activities such as power generation, infrastructure, and water withdrawals could improve consistency in life-cycle assessments and other strategic business-risk evaluations (65,74). Several global efforts are working to increase the accessibility of environmental-change information, often based on cutting-edge satellite and remotely sensed data (75,76).…”

The potential of food preservation to reduce food waste

“…A supply chain perspective here is crucial and these metrics can be described by a relatively concise set of functions such as import and export volumes; nutritional value and the energy used to supply food, which are often measured to obtain improved resource utilisation (4) . Such functions are used to assess the utilisation of resources in the four supply chain operations of production; manufacturing and processing; retailing, wholesaling and distribution; and consumption (1) .…”