Climate Change: A Call to Action

On Dec 15, 2018, in the town of Katowice, Poland, diplomats from 200 countries adopted a detailed set of rules to uphold and implement the Paris Agreement, the international treaty drafted by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This deal will require every country to track its emissions and climate policies by following a uniform set of standards. Furthermore, countries are to cut their emissions ahead of the next round of talks in 2020. Climate change is a complicated problem, one that will not be solved by national governments alone. A lot of real action is going to come from the entrepreneurs, the business sector, at the city and state level (Plumer, 2018b). In this editorial, we discuss the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the follow up National Climate Assessment (NCA) report and the effects detailed in these reports. Then, we discuss what might some of the remediation steps be. Where do we go from here? What are actionable steps that can be taken at the policy level, at the corporate level and at the individual level

An Operational Framework For Reverse Supply Chains

In this paper, we present a framework for reverse supply chains.  We identify four managerial drivers in the reverse chain as Facilities, Handling, Ease of Access, and Information. We explore the impact of each of these drivers upon the effectiveness and performance of the overall reverse chain via a survey of supply chain managers.  We present the results of the survey and conclude with managerial implications derived from the survey results. The field interviews have been supplemented with survey results. The results indicate that the firms, that have reverse supply chain as a strategic priority providing a responsive and effective transportation network and that have an easy return policy, are more likely to have the most reliable reverse supply chain. The results also indicate that reverse supply chain matters the most at the late growth stage of the product life

Case Study in the Evolution of Sustainability: Baxter International Inc.

Baxter International Inc. (Baxter) is a global, diversified healthcare company based in Deerfield, IL. In 2011, Baxter had sales of $13.9 billion and employed approximately 48,500 people worldwide (Baxter’s 2011 Sustainability Report). Baxter is also recognized for its efforts toward environmental/sustainability performance and reporting. The company defines sustainability as ‘a long-term approach to including our social, economic and environmental responsibilities among our business priorities. Baxter’s efforts in this area align with and support our mission of saving and sustaining lives.’ This case study attempts to analyze the progress of the company on its journey along the path toward sustainability. The formal environmental initiatives at Baxter were started in the 1970s. The acquisition of American Hospital Supply Corporation intensified the environmental challenges for the company. A new environmental course was set in the 1990s that led to the development of the State-of-the-Art (SOA) Environmental Standards. At this time, the company started measuring its efforts and began publishing an Environmental Financial Statement in its annual public Environmental Report. In 2005, an executive level Sustainability Steering Committee was proposed and subsequently created in 2006 to accelerate the integration of sustainability within all facets of the organization. This case study articulates the evolution of Sustainability at Baxter Inc. As a result of its efforts, Baxter has received numerous awards and accolades for its efforts in sustainability performance and reporting. For example, in 2011 Newsweek Magazine ranked Baxter the 4th greenest company in the United States (Newsweek Magazine, October 17, 2011, accessed online at http://www.baxter. com/press_room/features/2011/newsweek_green_rankings. html). Going forward, it would be noteworthy to see whether Baxter can keep up its momentum and continue to be a sustainability leader

Variational inequalities for marketable pollution permits with technological investment opportunities: the case of oligopolistic markets

In this paper, we develop a variational inequality framework for the modeling, qualitative analysis, and computation of equilibrium patterns in multiproduct, multipollutant oligopolistic markets with marketable pollution permits along with opportunities for investment in production technology and/or emission-abatement technology. The model deals explicitly with spatial differentiation and also guarantees that the imposed environmental standards are met through the initial allocation of licenses. An algorithm is proposed, with convergence results, to compute the profitmaximized quantities of oligopolistic firms\u27 products and the quantities of emissions, along with the equilibrium allocation of licenses and their prices, as well as the optimal investments in the technologies. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the model and the algorithm