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IIMB Management ReviewVolume 23, Issue 4, December 2011, Pages 234245Sustainable supply chain management: Review and research opportunities Sudheer Gupta Omkar D. Palsule-Desai AbstractAnthropogenic emissions likely pose serious threat to the stability of our environment; immediate actions are required to change the way the earths resources are consumed. Among the many approaches to mitigation of environmental deterioration being considered, the processes for designing, sourcing, producing and distributing products in global markets play a central role. Considerable research effort is being devoted to understanding how organisational initiatives and government policies can be structured to facilitate incorporation of sustainability into design and management of entire supply chain. In this paper, we review the current state of academic research in sustainable supply chain management, and provide a discussion of future direction and research opportunities in this field. We develop an integrative framework summarising the existing literature under four broad categories: (i) strategic considerations; (ii) decisions at functional interfaces; (iii) regulation and government policies; and (iv) integrative models and decision support tools. We aim to provide managers and industry practitioners with a nuanced understanding of issues and trade-offs involved in making decisions related to sustainable supply chain management. We conclude the paper by discussing environmental initiatives in India and the relevance of sustainability discussions in the context of the Indian economy.Keywords Sustainable supply chain management; Green supply chains; Closed-loop supply chains; Sustainability; Extended producer responsibility; Emissions tradingIntroductionA broad consensus has by now emerged that anthropogenic emissions pose serious threat to the stability of our environment, and that the resulting changes will affect our ecosystem by disrupting food and water supplies, submerging coastal wetlands, and causing severe weather patterns and species extinction. The global average temperature has been rising since the early 1900s, and has risen by more than 0.5 C in the last 50 years alone, with an accompanying rise in global average sea levels and drop in Northern Hemisphere snow cover (IPCC, 2007a). Decades of careful data collection, analysis and projections by groups of scientists and researchers around the world have confirmed that the world faces severe changes with an expected 24 C rise in global average temperature by the year 2100: 3040% of the species could be extinct, close to a third of global coastal wetlands are in danger of being submerged, millions of people will likely face food and water shortages, and many densely populated areas of the world, including many parts of Asia, will face higher rates of morbidity and mortality from heat waves, floods and droughts (IPCC, 2007b).A large part of the blame has been attributed to the six greenhouse gases (GHGs) that are known to trap heat into the earths atmosphere and contribute to a rise in global temperature: primary ones being carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. As measurements have shown, concentrations of GHGs in the earths atmosphere have been relatively stable over the last 10,000 years (at between 250 and 300 parts per million). However, in the last 150 years or sosince the beginning of industrial revolutionconcentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have shot up by more than 30% (from less than 300ppm to close to 400ppm), and concentrations of methane have almost doubled (IPCC, 2007a). Several large scale model projections have shown that a business-as-usual scenario, with no changes in our production methods and consumption habits, will lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem and damage the stability of our environment.There is an obvious need for urgent action to change the way we consume the earths resources. Among the many approaches to mitigation and adaptation being considered, the processes for designing, sourcing, producing and distributing products in global markets play a central role, as these activities account for a bulk of the resources consumed and the environmental impact. For example, in the United States, industrial activities account for about a third of fossil fuel related carbon dioxide emissions; another 40% are accounted for by transportation (EPA, 2007). Evidently, design and management of supply chain activities is a primary factor in promoting environmental sustainability.In this paper, we review the current state of academic research in designing and managing sustainable supply chains, and provide a discussion of future directions and research opportunities in this rapidly evolving field. In Section2, we provide a definition and description of Sustainable Supply Chain Management. In Section3, we summarise and discuss existing classifications and reviews of research in this field, and describe how our perspective differs from those in the literature. Section4presents the bulk of recent research in this area that fits our integrative perspective, summarised under four broad categories: (i) Strategic considerations; (ii) Decisions at functional interfaces; (iii) Regulation and government policies; and (iv) Integrative models and decision support tools. We conclude in Section5with a discussion of some environmental initiatives in India and the relevance of sustainability discussions in the context of the Indian economy.Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM)We define Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) as a set of managerial practices that include all of the following:Environmental impact as an imperative;Consideration of all stages across the entire value chain for each product; and A multi-disciplinary perspective, encompassing the entire product life-cycle.This definition implies a few broad themes in our perspective on environmental sustainability. First, firms must view environmental impact of their activities as an integral part of decision-making, rather than as a constraint imposed by government regulation or social pressure, or as a fad to exploit by appearing to be “green”. Second, firms must pay attention to environmental impact across the entire value chain, including those of suppliers, distributors, partners and customers. Third, firms view of sustainability must transcend a narrow functional perspective and encompass a broader view that integrates issues, problems and solutions across functional boundaries.In keeping with this definition, our review of the literature on SSCM adopts a firm perspective, rather than societal or policy-makers perspective, and focuses on organisational decisions related to the entire product life-cycle that involves design, production, distribution, consumer use, post-use recovery and reuse. We do not limit ourselves to literature in any one academic discipline; rather, we focus on interactions across functional areas including corporate strategy, product design, production and inventory management, marketing and distribution, and, regulatory compliance.The paper is intended to provide managers and industry practitioners with a nuanced understanding of issues and trade-offs involved in making decisions related to SSCM. The paper is also intended to provide management researchers with a summary of the current state of the art in SSCM research, and a roadmap for future research directions.SSCM research: reviews and classificationSeveral excellent reviews have been written over the years that examine various aspects of SSCM-related research. While these reviews adopt different perspectives from ours, readers interested in exploring a particular aspect of SSCM would find them useful. For instance, many of the existing reviews explore the SSCM literature for implications of environmental concerns on firms individual functions involving activities such as product design, production planning, or inventory management. On the contrary, we examine the existing studies from a value-chain perspective, and discuss environmental concerns in managerial decisions across functions. Moreover, most of the existing reviews cover literature that is, in some cases, over a decade old. Our review focuses on more recent research in this fast changing and growing field.Early research efforts in SSCM were largely devoted to understanding the technical and operational considerations inherent in collecting, testing, sorting, and remanufacturing of returned products. Research in this domain can broadly be classified under the following headings: (i) Production planning, scheduling and control; (ii) Inventory management; and (iii) Reverse logistics. While research in these areas continues, given the availability of excellent reviews covering this domain, we will abstract from these issues in our review, and encourage the readers to consult the papers mentioned below.In an early review of the literature,Greenberg (1995)surveys the use of mathematical programming models for controlling environmental quality, focussing on air, water, and land. The paper is limited to general equilibrium models with multiple decision making agents, where an equivalent mathematical program can be formulated to compute a fixed point. The review provides an annotated bibliography with more than 300 papers, and identifies many research avenues for studies using mathematical programming in addressing environmental concerns.Fleischmann etal. (1997)focus on quantitative models of reverse logistics, and subdivide the literature in three areas: distribution planning, inventory control, and production planning. For each of these areas, the authors discuss the implications of the product reuse efforts being explored at the time, review the mathematical models proposed in the literature, and point out the areas in need of further research.Carter and Ellram (1998)also focus on reverse logistics, but present a more holistic view that includes the reduction of materials in the forward system in such a way that fewer materials flow back, reuse of materials is made possible, and recycling is facilitated. The paper develops a broadened view of the role of logistics personnel in reverse logistics, and identifies gaps where future research is needed. In particular, the authors identify important players and influencing factors (internal, external and environmental) involved in reverse logistics and provide a framework to study these issues.Gungor and Gupta (1999)focus on environmentally conscious manufacturing and product recovery, described as integrating environmental thinking into new product development including design, material selection, manufacturing processes, product delivery to the consumers, and end-of-life management of the product. The authors review and categorise more than 300 papers based on four stages of product life-cycle analysis: product design, manufacturing, use, and recovery. The paper argues that two key issues involved in environmentally conscious manufacturing are: (i) understanding the life-cycle of the product and its impact on the environment at each of its life stages, and (ii) making better decisions during product design and manufacturing so that the environmental attributes of the product and manufacturing process are kept at a desired level. Consistent with bulk of the research efforts at the time, the review focuses on the product recovery process (divided into recycling and remanufacturing), and provides an analysis of issues relevant in collection, disassembly, inventory control and production planning of used products. Similar issues are tackled inGuide and van Wassenhove (2002)andGuide, Jayaraman, and Srivastava (1999).In a departure from the narrower focus of articles summarised above,Kleindorfer, Singhal, and van Wassenhove (2005)review various sustainability themes covered in the first 50 issues ofProduction and Operations Managementjournal. The authors use the term sustainability broadly to include environmental management, closed-loop supply chains, and triple-bottom-line thinking that integrates profit, people and the planet into the culture, strategy and operations of companies. The authors suggest that businesses are under an increasing pressure to pay more attention to the environmental and resource consequences of the products and services they offer and the processes they deploy. In turn, operations management (OM) researchers and practitioners face new challenges in integrating sustainability issues within their traditional areas of interest. The paper concludes with some thoughts on future research challenges in sustainable operations management, highlighting three areasgreen product and process development, lean-and-green OM, and, remanufacturing and closed-loop supply chainsthat integrate essential aspects of sustainable OM.“Closed loop supply chain management” (CLSC) can be defined as the design, control, and operation of a system to maximise value creation over the life-cycle of a product, with dynamic recovery of value from different types and volumes of returns over time (Guide & van Wassenhove, 2006). This perspective has gained increasing attention among researchers in the last decade.Guide and van Wassenhove (2009)focus on business aspects of closed-loop supply chain research and provide a personal perspective on value-added recovery activities, but do not review the existing literature. The authors summarise evolution of CLSC research through five phases, which is useful in understanding the evolution of a subset of research activities within SSCM. The paper claims that Phase 1 consisted of early research that focused almost exclusively on technical problems and individual activities of reverse logistics. Phase 2 has expanded research problems to include inventory control, reverse logistics networks, and remanufacturing/shop line design issues. Phase 3 involves coordinating reverse supply chains using an economic perspective and game theoretic models, understanding strategic implications of product recovery, contracting issues, incentive alignment, and channel design. Phase 4 involves Global system design for profitability, that primarily includes issues such as time value of product returns and maximising value over entire product life-cycle. Phase 5 involves a focus on marketing issues such as pricing of product returns, cannibalisation, and understanding consumer behaviour.While these reviews and classifications provide different perspectives on sustainability research in supply chain management, none of them provides an integrative, comprehensive overview of the field from a firms perspective, adopting a strategic decision-based approach. We seek to integrate these perspectives in our review below.Integrative SSCMFollowing our discussion in Section2, we consider a broad range of managerial decisions, categorised along the following dimensions:I. Strategic considerations:a. Organisational strategyb. Supply chain strategy and structurec. Marketing strategyII. Decisions at functional interfaces:d. Product design and product life-cyclee. Pricing and valuation of returnsf. Forecasting, information provision, and value of informationIII. Regulation and government policies:g. Extended producer responsibilityh. Cap and trade programsIV. Integrative models and decision support toolsIn the following sections, we briefly summarise the major issues and concerns in each of these categories, review and summarise some of the academic efforts that have addressed these issues, and outline promising avenues for future research in these areas.Strategic considerationsOrganisational strategyFrom a strategic perspective, organisational decisions on sustainability revolve around the following questions: (i) How does the organisation view sustainability? (ii) What options does the organisation have to incorporate environmental considerations into strategic decisions? (iii) How do these considerations affect theories of the firm that provide an economic rationale to firms existence, behaviour, structure and relationship to markets? While there are broad debates in literature on corporate social responsibility (of which sustainability discussions could be seen as a subset), we limit ourselves here to a value chain perspective and summarise the major issues via three papers that discuss, respectively, the strategic value of pollution prevention and resulting productivity gains, compare specific methods and techniques for controlling greenhouse gas emissions on their estimated costs, and outline the strategic importance of reverse value chain activities. These themes recur throughout this article and we will expand on them, and their impact on supply chain related decisions, in the following sections.In an influential article,Porter and van der Linde (1995)view pollution from the perspective of resource inefficiency, and discuss green initiatives in terms of their implications on firms competitiveness. In particular, they view the inherent trade-off between environmental regulations and competitiveness as ecology versus economy: the regulations provide social benefits via strict environmental standards, however, higher private costs for prevention and cleanup increase prices and hence reduce competitiveness. The authors argue that policy makers, business leaders, and environmentalists have focussed on the static cost impact of environmental regulations and have ignored the more important offsetting productivity benefits from innovation. Moreover, the authors claim that pollution prevention through product and process design is superior and economical to pollution control through waste management. In this regard, they propose a resource productivity framework based on innovation and