Measuring the eco-intensity of the supply chain : a novel approach

More than 80% of the environmental impacts in a typical supply chain can arise beyond the focal firm, however models quantifying the environmental performance of supply chains typically measure only direct suppliers and customers rather than extended supply chains that represent the norm in the globalized competitive environment. This work aims to introduce an innovative quantitative approach to assess the eco-intensity of an extended supply chain, allowing to relate the environmental performance of a supply chain to its economic performance. The approach is based on multiple environmental indicators and a decentralized recursive mechanism, making it applicable to non-cooperative supply chains

An innovative eco-intensity based method for assessing extended supply chain environmental sustainability

Organisations currently face increasing pressure from multiple stakeholders to improve their environmental performance. The majority of environmental impacts in a typical supply chain usually arise beyond the focal firm boundaries or even its direct suppliers. However, no method to assess the extended supply chain environmental performance that is designed to use real life data currently exists. The aim of this work is to facilitate quantitative assessment of the environmental performance of extended supply chains by introducing an innovative eco-intensity based method that relates the environmental performance of the supply chain to its economic output. The method is the first to allow assessing the environmental sustainability performance of extended supply chains based on real life data, while respecting the multiple-organisation nature and non-collaborative characteristics of the majority of real life supply chains. This is achieved through the adopted decentralised approach, materialised through a recursive mechanism to pass eco-intensity values from one tier to the next, which does not require visibility of the extended supply chain by any single member, thus enhancing the applicability of the method. The method is demonstrated through a numerical example with secondary data for four representative supply chains with different design features, to showcase its applicability. The CO2 emissions and water eco-intensities are calculated. The findings enable both benchmarking the eco-intensity performance of the extended supply chains and comparison of the eco-intensity indicators of the individual organisations, offering a basis to guide operational improvement and to support external reporting. The method has the potential to change the way organisations approach their environmental sustainability by facilitating understanding of the wider supply chain impact

Improving environmental sustainability in agri-food supply chains : evidence from an eco-intensity-based method application

Focal companies in food supply chains face increasing pressure to produce food sustainably and lower the environmental impact across their supply chain (SC). Although governance mechanisms to manage suppliers and sub-suppliers have been established, focal companies in the food sector still lack effective tools to capture the actual environmental sustainability performance of their multi-tier SCs, which could support them to decrease the environmental impact associated to their products. This work thus aims to showcase how assessing the environmental sustainability performance of a multi-tier food SC made up by SMEs can support decisions in order to drive evidence-based green improvements in the SC operations. A low-input eco-intensity-based multicriteria performance assessment method was applied to a bread SC, adopting a longitudinal case study design, to evaluate its applicability for decision-making in an operating context. Following the identification of environmental hotspots along the SC, targeted green operational improvements were implemented within individual organisations, resulting in a decrease of the eco-intensity values both at the targeted SC tiers and at the overall SC level. These results demonstrated that the method was able to support the improvement of the SC environmental performance. This work is the first longitudinal study in the multi-tier green supply chain management (GSCM) area. It contributes to the multi-tier food GSCM and GSCM performance assessment fields by demonstrating how the integration of environmental sustainability performance assessment methods and SC governance mechanisms can effectively support across time the deployment of GSCM within food SCs, while adopting an indirect SC management approach. Finally, the application of the method within a supply chain consisting of SMEs, inexperienced in sustainability assessment, demonstrates its potential to achieve SC-wide sustainability assessment and contributes to the wider GSCM field by providing insights on the implementation of GSCM in supply chains dominated by SMEs

Measuring eco-intensity in an multi-tier food supply chain : a case study

Organisations are facing increasing pressure from stakeholders to lower the environmental impact of their company and their supply chain. However, green supply chain management research has mostly focused on direct suppliers, with limited consideration of further upstream supplier tiers. This work aims to demonstrate the applicability of an innovative method to assess the eco-intensity of multi-tier supply chains, which adopts an indirect approach recognising the pivotal role of direct suppliers. Results from a single case study in a food supply chain show that the recursive method is effective in supporting environmental performance assessment of the whole supply chai

Benchmarking the environmental performance of supply chains through eco-intensity

The majority of the environmental impacts in a typical supply chain arises beyond the focal firm, thus the need to quantify the environmental performance of extended supply chain. This work aims to introduce a quantitative approach to assess the eco-intensity of products considering the extended supply chain by adopting a decentralized recursive mechanism. The model is validated through a numerical example of a fictitious supply chain adopting secondary data. Products are benchmarked on the basis of their CO2 emissions and water consumption eco-intensity, allowing more informed and sustainable purchasing decisions by customer

Environmental performance measurement for green supply chains : a systematic analysis and review of quantitative methods

Purpose – The majority of the environmental impacts in a typical supply chain can arise beyond the focal firm boundaries. However, no standardised method to quantify these impacts at the supply chain level currently exists. The aim of this work is to identify the quantitative methods developed to measure the environmental performance of supply chains and evaluate their key features. Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review is conducted at the intersection of performance measurement and green supply chain management fields, covering 78 publications in peer-reviewed academic journals. The literature is reviewed according to several perspectives, including the environmental aspects considered, the main purpose of measurement, model types and the extent of supply chain covered by performance measurements. Findings – Adopted environmental metrics show a low degree of standardisation and focus on natural resources, energy and emissions to air. The visibility and traceability of environmental aspects are still limited: the assessment of environmental impacts does not span in most cases beyond the direct business partners of the focal firms. A trade-off was observed between the range of environmental aspects and the extent of the supply chain considered with no method suitable for a holistic evaluation of the environmental supply chain performance identified. Three major streams of research developing in the field are identified, based on different scope. Originality/value – This paper is the first attempt to examine in detail what tiers of the supply chain are actually involved in green performance assessment, ultimately contributing to clarify the scope of the supply chain dimension in green supply chain management performance measurement research. The work also recognises which methods are applicable to extended supply chains and explores how different methodologies perform in terms of supply chain extent covered

Introducing social sustainability aspects in supplier selection : the role of governmental intervention

This paper aims to understand how governmental intervention can drive organisations to adopt social sustainability aspects in their supplier selection process. The successful case study of the recent introduction of the In-Country-Value program at the Oil and Gas sector of Oman is examined. A survey and interviews with supply chain, contracting and procurement managers were conducted and the primary data was analysed. Governmental intervention was found capable of driving organisations to adopt social sustainability aspects in their supplier selection process, but leads to a 'cap' bounded by governmental requirements if the motivation does not come from within the organisations

Optimising the product distribution decisions for government feeding programs in developing countries

Institutional markets have evolved as one alternative way for smallholder farmers to access the market and supply their produce at a known in advance price and quantity. This helps planning agricultural operations and provides security of income, which is critical for the farmer livelihoods. One such example is the PNAE government feeding program in Brazil, where schools source raw materials and ingredients from local smallholder farmers for school meals. This work presents a Decision Support System (DSS) supporting farmers decisions on which schools to supply, with which products and how to organise the logistical activities, to maximise the net income from participation in these markets. The DSS is applied after the farmers have knowledge which bids they have been successful in, and therefore they have clarity on the potential supply areas. The decisions at this stage can be quite complex, with several factors to be considered simultaneously, such as product range, quantities and price for each school that a bid was won, distance and logistical costs, and logistical synergies when delivered quantities in the same area are larger. At the same time there are constraints such as the land, transportation and resource availability. The proposed DSS is novel in supporting smallholder farmer decisions on supplying institutional markets. The results of the DSS application for a specific smallholder farmer settlement in Brazil are presented and discussed, to assess its applicability

Optimization model as a decision support system for participating in public tenders for feeding programs

Communities of small family farmers are among the poorest and most vulnerable segments of Brazilian society, so any increase in their disposable income would make a significant difference in their living standards. In response to this social problem, Brazilian authorities have developed programs to encourage family farming (such as the PAA - Food Acquisition Program and the PNAE - National School Feeding Program, in English), giving family farmers priority to the provision of agricultural products and food to schools and public institutions. However, farmers face a challenge both in deciding which public calls they subscribe to and in distributing their products to schools and public institutions. They struggle also in identifying which areas and contracts to compete for, leading to reduced participation of vulnerable farmers in government programs specifically designed to support them. To this end, a decision support system (DSS) based on an optimization model was developed to address this problem. The DSS allows farmers to identify which bids to attend based on a two-phase-gate process, which evaluates bids based on their individual profitability as well as on a geographical area value concentration criteria

Risk assessment for circular business models : a fuzzy Delphi study application for composite materials

Circular economy (CE) implementation requires the transition from linear business models (BMs) to circular ones, with related uncertainties and multi-disciplinary risks, which often discourage organisations. However, there is still a lack of understanding of risks associated with this process. This work thus aims to identify, classify and prioritise key risk factors for innovative circular BMs in order to enable the development of appropriate risk management strategies. A fuzzy Delphi method was tailored to assess the risk factors obtained from the literature and was applied to the industrial case of composite materials. 24 major risk factors for innovative circular BMs were identified and classified into six categories. The probability and impact of the risk factors were evaluated by experts and the risk factors were then ranked by calculating their risk scores. The resultant major risks appeared to be related to the external context in which organisations operate. Among those risks, the greatest were those generated by take-back systems and low customers’ acceptance of CE products. This research is the first to address risks for circularity in a structured way and contributes to the field of CE by providing an extensive list and classification of risk factors for innovative circular BMs as they are perceived by industry, acting as a reference for academics and practitioners. Furthermore, it provides the first evaluation and prioritisation of risk factors within the CE domain, highlighting critical risks within the specific industrial context of composite materials and suggesting action priorities for the establishment of circular BMs