The Sustainable Supply Chain Project

 

Profitability

 

Accountability

 

Community

 

Environment

 

Sustainability

 

The Sustainable Supply Chain Project

 

The growing importance of China and India, along with rapidly rising fuel prices, have caused some firms to begin to reexamine their manufacturing processes and the configurations of their supply chains. In relation, the definition of the concept of sustainability is evolving. For many firms and organizations, sustainability refers primarily to environmental stewardship. For other groups, sustainability seems to primarily mean actions related to social responsibility. Many of the managers who have worked on the concept of sustainability in the past have avoided much focus on the financial portion of sustainability and concentrated on the environment and social responsibility. For this project, we plan to focus on how supply chains, and the firms that make up those supply chains, can be long lasting.

 

The objectives of this research project are to:

1. define the concept of sustainability within the context of supply chain management, and

2. determine how firms and their supply chains can most likely achieve long lasting success even if their operating environment becomes hostile.