Sustainable Supply Chains and Logistics

Supply chain sustainability is concerned with the global acquisition, trade, movement, use, and post-use of feedstocks and manufactured goods. Organizations seek to minimize impacts to natural and biological resources, land use, and human health as well as to minimize/eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, the use of chemicals, and forced labor.   

Technologies and policies, as well as public and corporate sustainability commitments, can act enable the expansion of sustainable supply chains. Sensors and monitoring devices, asset inventory management, the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data all present solutions that make it easier to identify, locate, track, and communicate with the products and components that require maintenance, repair, or replacement.

Two of the greatest disruptive sets of technologies to impact sustainable supply chains and logistics are artificial intelligence and machine learning with the promise of offering unique opportunities in traceability, lower costs, and increased speed of environmental life cycle and techno-economic models.

A growing area of research and application is now focused on the post-consumer use of products and goods to advance sustainability and the transition to a more circular economy. Sustainable reverse logistics, also referred to as “aftermarket supply chain”, is the process of collecting and aggregating products, components, or materials at the end-of-life for reuse, recycling, and returns. Reverse logistics can provide firms with novel revenue streams and cost efficiencies.

Additionally, an altering landscape of global trade policies and tariffs is potentially altering the sustainability of supply chain goods and logistics as buyers seek new suppliers in different geographies. 

This section invites novel research papers and reviews focusing on the development and application of sustainable supply chains and logistics around the globe in related topics including the following:

• Influencing factors of supply chain management and logistics;
• Environmental and social considerations and results;
• Corporate strategies and public policies;
• Reverse logistics and circular economies;
• Emergence of technologies, AI, blockchain, and machine learning for sustainable supply chains and logistics;
• Transition to a biobased economy;
• Workforce and labor;
• Economics, finance, and insurance.

Prof. Dr. Jay S. Golden
Section Editor-in-Chief