The Impact Of Build-To-Order Supply Chain On The Energy Efficiency And Low Carbon Footprint: Mediating Effect Of Supply Chain Responsiveness

The importance of incorporating Energy Efficient and Low Carbon Footprint practices in Malaysia is a topic which cannot be neglected. The implementation of Build-To-Order Supply Chain Management is of vital importance in order to achieve the Energy Efficient and Low Carbon Footprint standards. This study was developed in order to test the impact of Build-To-Order Supply Chain on the Energy Efficiency and the Low Carbon Footprint initiatives taking Supply Chain Responsiveness as the mediating variable for this study. After careful study on the literature and previous work, the driver of Build-To-Order Supply Chain were taken to be as Production Systems, Process Modularity

Supply chains and energy security in a low carbon transition

This special edition to be published in Applied Energy brings together a range of papers that explore the complex, multi-dimensional and inter-related issues associated with the supply or value chains that make up energy systems and how a focus on them can bring new insights for energy security in a low carbon transition. Dealing with the trilemma of maintaining energy security, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and maintaining affordability for economies and end users are key issues for all countries, but there are synergies and trade-offs in simultaneously dealing with these different objectives. Currently, industrialised energy systems are dominated by supply chains based on fossil fuels and these, for the most part, have been effective in enabling energy security and affordability. However, they are increasingly struggling to do this, particularly in respect to efforts to tackle climate change, given that the energy sector is responsible for around two-thirds of the global greenhouse gas emissions [1]. A key challenge is therefore how to decarbonise energy systems, whilst also ensuring energy security and affordability. This special issue, through a focus on supply chains, particularly considers the interactions and relationships between energy security and decarbonisation. Energy security is a property of energy systems and their ability to withstand short-term shocks and longer-term stresses depends on other important system properties including resilience, robustness, flexibility and stability [2]. Energy systems are essentially a supply chain comprising of multiple and interrelated sub-chains based around different fuels, technologies, infrastructures, and actors, operating at different scales and locations – from extraction/imports and conversion through to end use [3]. These supply chains have become increasingly globalised and are influenced by the on-going shifts in global supply and demand. Thus the aim of this special issue is to explore and discuss how to enable the development of a secure and sustainable energy system through a better understanding of both existing and emerging low carbon energy supply chains as well as of new approaches to the design and management of energy systems. In part, because moving from a system dominated by fossil fuels to one based on low carbon creates a new set of risks and uncertainties for energy security as well as new opportunities. A large number of submissions from over 18 countries were received for this special edition and 16 papers were accepted after peer review. These address a variety of issues and we have chosen to discuss the findings under two key themes, although many of the papers cut across these: (1) Insights from, and for, supply chain analysis. (2) Insights for energy security and its management. We then provide in (3) a summary of insights and research gaps. Table 1 provides a snapshot of the areas covered by the papers showing: theme (s); empirical domains; and geographical coverage

A review of managing carbon emissions for sustainable supply chain management

Carbon emissions were one of the most critical contributors to climate change, and the recent climate agreement had agreed for all participating countries to reduce their emissions. Malaysia has pledged to reduce 45 per cent of its carbon emissions by 2025. However, reducing carbon emissions from the industry was still limited due to voluntary reporting, particularly among manufacturers. Thus, it is ambitious for the Malaysian government to achieve its target by 2025. A complete review is performed to go through the literature and determine the review's research path. This review aims to investigate the low carbon performance based on the manufacturing industry's low carbon supply chain practices. The findings show that low carbon production was insignificant in reducing overall carbon emissions. In contrast, the rest of the low carbon supply chain practices were by the Natural Resource-Based-View (NRBV) theory. It helps to identify companies' low carbon supply chain practices to reduce carbon emissions and meet environmental regulations. Additionally, the review also provided new insight into mediating effect that contributes to the organizational theory of NRBV. The theoretical hypotheses were tested with bias-corrected and accelerated (BCA) bootstrap confidence intervals. The instrument used in this review is a questionnaire, and the questionnaire consists of five (5) scales which tapped on (LCSCM), energy management, and low carbon performance. Responses from the respondent were collected via an online survey between Malaysian manufacturing industries. SmartPLS was used to perform the model and structural analyses. The result shows that LCSCM influence carbon performance directly and indirectly, so the hypotheses are supported. This review is one of the earliest attempts to record empirical evidence regarding companies’ low carbon supply chain practices and performance. Thus, the review shows results can be used and extended to develop low-carbon supply chain frameworks

Fashion exposed: research pathways for a just transition in fashion operations and supply chain management

Purpose: This impact pathways paper proposes that operations and supply chain management (OSCM) can help to ensure that the transition from a high-carbon to low-carbon fashion industry takes place in a just, inclusive and fair way. By immersing ourselves in fashion brands, suppliers and workers’ realities across multiple supply chains, we identify challenges and issues related to just transitions, while proposing research pathways to inspire future OSCM research and collaboration using innovative and creative methods to answer complex questions related to just transition. Design/methodology/approach: The research we introduce used a multi-level field research approach to investigate multiple fashion supply chains in transition. Findings: We uncovered that in the pursuit of lowering carbon emissions, fast-fashion giants work with industrial associations to create top-down governance tools, leading to severe problems in supply chain data and paradoxical demands. These demands are cascaded onto the workers in these supply chains. The goals and tools dictated by the fashion giants exclude workers, while the physiological and psychological effects on the workers are routinely ignored. These issues impede a just transition to a low-carbon fashion industry. Originality: We introduce concepts largely missing from OSCM literatures and ensure representation of the most marginalised group, supply chain workers, in a novel setting in a call for research in this emerging area. Keywords: Fashion, Supply management, Just transition, Workers, Sustainability, Impact, Research pathway

Toward greener supply chains: is there a role for the new ISO 50001 approach to energy and carbon management?

© 2016, The Author(s). Considering the increased interest of stakeholders in climate change and a low-carbon economy, this article has investigated and identified several contributions of the ISO 50001 in support of the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM). In this context, energy efficiency and reduced CO 2 emissions are critical. Therefore, the proposal for and the requirements of ISO 50001 can generate useful insights on how to structure green and low-carbon supply chains, hence helping to address the challenges posed by climate change

On the Incentives to Shift to Low-Carbon Freight Transport

The transport sector accounts for approximately 20% of EU-27 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and 27% of U.S. GHG emissions. With the Kyoto Protocol, Sweden and several other nations have agreed to reduce these emissions. Often, solutions that involve consolidating freight and moving it to more carbon-efficient transport technologies are advocated as the most advantageous. For such initiatives the technology already exists, so change is only a matter of implementation. But when aggregate data is examined, very little change for the better is seen. This thesis explores why this may be the case, with the purpose being to increase the understanding of the incentives to shift to low-carbon freight transport. This is explored in a three-phase research structure where, first, macro-data is analyzed, after which theory is built using two multiple case studies, which serve as input to three mathematical modeling studies of different parts of the operator-service provider/forwarder-shipper chain of actors. By considering the chain of actors on the freight transport market as a service supply chain, the research in this thesis is able to use methods from, and make contributions to, the sustainable supply chain management literature as well as the literature on transport contracting. With this literature as the point of departure, the studies show that there is a matching problem associated with the implementation of low-carbon transports: with the currently used contracts it is usually not rational for the actors on the market to shift to low-carbon transports, even though the total cost on the market, on aggregate, may be reduced from shifting. Nevertheless, there are situations where shifting is rational for all actors. Creating such situations normally requires implementing long-term contracts. The models in this thesis show how such contracts can be designed. However, the models also show that situations where implementation is rational are very sensitive to changes in external parameters such as demand volatility, making implementation high risk in many cases. Another downside is that the environmental improvement is not always as large as one would expect due to inventory build-up and extra truck transports. For low-carbon transports to be implemented in large scale, their costs need to be more in line with conventional transports, and contracts that allocate risks and profits better need to be implemented. Not until these issues are better understood, and contracts and regulation implemented, can a large scale shift to low-carbon transports be expected

Energy from waste and the food processing industry

The provision of a secure, continuous energy supply is becoming an issue for all sectors of society and the foodprocessingindustry as a major energy user must address these issues. This paper identifies anaerobic digestion as an opportunity to go some way to achieving energy security in a sustainable manner. However, a number of energy management and waste reduction concepts must also be brought into play if the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability are to be balanced. The reporting of such activity will help to promote the green credentials of the industry. Cleaner production, supply chain and life cycle assessment approaches all have a part to play as tools supporting a new vision for integrated energy and waste management. Our reliance on high-energyprocessing, such as canning and freezing/chill storage, might also need re-assessment together with processing based on hurdle technology. Finally, the concepts of energy and power management for a distributed energy generation system must be brought into the foodprocessingindustry

Meeting the challenge of zero carbon homes : a multi-disciplinary review of the literature and assessment of key barriers and enablers

Within the built environment sector, there is an increasing pressure on professionals to consider the impact of development upon the environment. These pressures are rooted in sustainability, and particularly climate change. But what is meant by sustainability? It is a term whose meaning is often discussed, the most common definition taken from the Bruntland report as “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). In the built environment, the sustainability issues within the environment, social and economic spheres are often expressed through design considerations of energy, water and waste. Given the Stern Report’s economic and political case for action with respect to climate change (Stern, 2006) and the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report’s confirmation of the urgency of the climate change issue and it’s root causes (IPCC, 2007), the need for action to mitigate the effects of climate change is currently high on the political agenda. Excess in carbon dioxide concentrations over the natural level have been attributed to anthropogenic sources, most particularly the burning of carbon-based fossil fuels. Over 40% of Europe’s energy and 40% of Europe’s carbon dioxide emissions arise from use of energy in buildings. Energy use in buildings is primarily for space heating, water heating, lighting and appliance use. Professionals in the built environment can therefore play a significant role in meeting targets for mitigating the effects of climate change. The UK Government recently published the Code for Sustainable Homes (DCLG, 2006). Within this is the objective of development of zero carbon domestic new build dwellings by 2016. It is the domestic zero carbon homes agenda which is the focus of this report. The report is the culmination of a research project, funded by Northumbria University, and conducted from February 2008 to July 2008, involving researchers from the Sustainable Cities Research Institute (within the School of the Built Environment) and academics, also from within the School. The aim of the project was to examine, in a systematic and holistic way, the critical issues, drivers and barriers to building and adapting houses to meet zero carbon targets. The project involved a wide range of subject specialisms within the built environment and took a multi-disciplinary approach. Practitioner contribution was enabled through a workshop. The focus of this work was to review the academic literature on the built environment sector and its capabilities to meet zero carbon housing targets. It was not possible to undertake a detailed review of energy efficiency or micro-generation technologies, the focus of the research was instead in four focussed areas: policy, behaviour, supply chain and technology.What follows is the key findings of the review work undertaken. Chapter One presents the findings of the policy and regulation review. In Chapter Two the review of behavioural aspects of energy use in buildings is presented. Chapter Three presents the findings of the review of supply chain issues. Chapter Four presents the findings of the technology review, which focuses on phase change materials. A summary of the key barriers and enablers, and areas for future research work, concludes this report in Chapter Five. Research is always a work in progress, and therefore comments on this document are most welcome, as are offers of collaboration towards solutions. The School of the Built Environment at Northumbria University strives to embed its research in practical applications and solutions to the need for a low carbon economy

Modelo para la Identificación y Reducción de la Huella de Carbono de una Cadena de Suministros Industrial

Tesis (Doctorado en Ciencias Naturales para el Desarrollo con énfasis en Gestión y Cultura Ambiental). Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica. Universidad Estatal a Distancia, Doctorado en Ciencias Naturales para el Desarrollo Modelo, 2018The increment of greenhouse gases is the main cause of climate change. Worldwide regulatory pressure regarding their emission has been increasing in late years. Though Costa Rica is not a significant emitter, it is seeking, as other countries, to reduce them, and in fact, is committed to become a carbon-neutral country in the near future. This research was conducted to develop a mathematical model aimed to identify and reduce carbon emissions in supply chain management. The structure of the supply chain network in this research included suppliers, plants, warehouses and retailers. The carbon emissions related to each of the activities involved were calculated by means of carbon emission factors and through global warming factors they were converted into carbon equivalent emissions. The model determines a supply chain network that minimizes the impact of the carbon footprint and its total cost. In addition, the designed model achieves a supply chain network that minimizes total costs under a carbon limit. Moreover, the proposed model can determine the supply chain network that minimizes a combined function of emissions and operational costs. Furthermore, it finds a network model that comes closer to reach certain desired environmental and economical target values. A network optimization mathematical model solved by mix integer linear programming was developed to meet these requirements. The application of the model to the supply chain case of a manufactured product, showed this proposed model could be used to obtain an insight of the differences and similarities between supply chain networks when costs and carbon emissions are optimized in parallel. Most importantly, the model determines the network that accomplishes a reasonable agreement between the emissions and cost objectives, that is, a network with fewer carbon emissions at a low-cost increment. This research xi also found that when economic objectives prevail over environmental objectives, carbon emission reduction becomes difficult. Hence, the model makes a significant contribution to the body of research in understanding the importance of the carbon footprint in the supply chain network. Therefore, the model hereby designed, is useful for both manufacturing enterprises and sustainable development policy makers. In addition, the model is versatile, and it can be applied to several product supply chains, as long as they have an analogous network. Climate change projections and future scenarios reveal it will severely harm society and economy. Despite the search for alternative energy sources, clean and renewable, fossil fuel dependency will prevail in the short and midterm future. Therefore, tackling the problem of reducing greenhouse gases emissions is necessary on behalf of the entire world population. The proposed model encourages corporate social responsibility, due to the economic and environmental impact information it provides for decision making in supply chain network management. Even more, the potential carbon reduction emissions from this model have important environmental, social and economic benefits

THE IMPLICATIONS OF ENERGY TRANSITION ON SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

The oil and gas (O&G) industry is increasingly pressured to manage its supply chain sustainably due to the negative impact of its activities and products on the environment and society. Unsustainable exploitation of the O&G has also led to concerns about its future availability, thus the security of energy supply. These issues resulted in the call for the transition to an energy system that favours low carbon and renewable sources. The O&G are expected to respond to these pressures by developing strategies that could enhance its competitiveness and compatibility with the future energy systems. As yet, little is known about the strategies especially with regard to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) aspects. Therefore, this study aims to add to the discussion by focusing on understanding the implications of energy transition to SSCM practices in the O&G industry. It employs content analysis of sustainability reports of 30 O&G companies. The findings indicate that although 18 companies are involved in the research and development of alternative energy, the main focus is on developing unconventional O&G to increase fuel supply bases. In addition, among the alternatives, biofuels is the most preferred energy option due to its compatibility with the companies’ existing business and infrastructure. Overall, there are considerable limitations in the discussions of the SSCM strategy in the reports. We find that the sustainability of the unconventionals’ production processes received more attention than supplier and logistics management. The strategies for sustainable supply chain of the alternatives, except for biofuels, are hardly discussed or absent from the report. The findings could be useful to industry practitioners in decision making processes to improve existing SSCM practices during the transition, and to academics to identify areas for further investigations.Â