Environmental Supply Chain and Sustainable Operations Management: Theories, Methods, Techniques and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

With the intensification of environmental problems, such as global climate change, resource depletion and biodiversity loss, countries around the world have begun to pay attention to environmental protection and sustainable development. As important elements of economic activity, the impact of supply chains on the environment cannot be ignored. Traditional supply chain management mainly focuses on cost, efficiency and speed, while ignoring environmental and social factors. In recent years, the question of how to integrate environmental factors into supply chain management has become a hot topic for researchers. Governments and international organizations have also successively introduced various environmental protection laws and policies, such as the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to foster enterprises to adopt more environmentally friendly and sustainable strategies in their operations. This requires enterprises to consider environmental and social responsibilities in supply chain management to ensure compliance and long-term sustainable development. At the same time, modern consumers increasingly demand environmentally friendly and sustainable products, which has prompted companies to introduce environmentally friendly and socially responsible practices into their supply chains. Consumers are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of products, such as their carbon footprint, the material resources used, and the curtailment of pollution during production processes.

Research on environmental supply chains and sustainable operations management helps to formulate strategies to reduce resource consumption and environmental pollution and promote global sustainable development. This research field can provide companies with a path toward optimizing their supply chains to achieve a win–win situation with both environmental and economic benefits. By implementing environmental supply chain management, companies can not only reduce environmental risks, but can also gain competitive advantages through innovation and efficiency improvements. Environmental supply chain management can enhance the brand value of enterprises and enhance consumer trust and loyalty. The supply chain involves multiple links, from raw material procurement to product distribution, and each link may have a negative impact on the environment. Researching and implementing sustainable supply chain management can help companies identify and manage these environmental risks and avoid potential legal and reputational losses.

To discuss and disseminate the latest advances and progress in the development of theories, methods, techniques and applications in the fields of environment supply chain and sustainable operations management, a Special Issue named “Environmental Supply Chain and Sustainable Operations Management: Theories, Methods, Techniques and Applications” is being furnished and organized. The aim of this Special Issue is to integrate recent frontiers and achievements pertaining to theories, methods, techniques and applications of environmental supply chain and sustainable operations management. We invite you to submit your latest research works on subjects including, but not limited to:

• Green supply chain management;
• Low-carbon supply chain management;
• Sustainable operations management;
• Clean production and the circular economy;
• Reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chain management;
• Sustainable supply chain finance;
• Environmental risk management for supply chains;
• Social responsibility and ethical supply chains;
• Social responsibility and ethics in supply chains;
• Policy and regulatory compliance in supply chains;
• Supply chain disruption risk and resilient operations management;
• Green consumer behavior and decision-making;
• Correlations between the environmental performance and financial performance of supply chains;
• Supply chain sustainability assessment and performance management;
• The impact of environmental policies and regulations on supply chains;
• Technological innovation and digital transformation to promote sustainable operations;
• The application of digital and artificial intelligence technologies in environmental supply chains;
• Environmental impacts and resource efficiency in sustainable operations management;
• Life cycle assessment-based carbon/water/ecological footprint analysis;
• Externality analysis and governmental intervention in environmental supply chains;
• Multi-objective conflict analysis and collaborative optimization in environment supply chain management;
• Operational strategies and governance policies in environment supply chain management;
• Competitive strategies and governance policies of environment supply chain management in a competitive environment;
• Various case studies of environment supply chain and sustainable operations management.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Prof. Dr. Zhisong Chen
Prof. Dr. Shujian Ma
Dr. Run Tang
Prof. Dr. Yong Wu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• environmental supply chain
• sustainable operations management
• green supply chain management
• low-carbon supply chain management
• social responsibility
• green consumer behavior
• life cycle assessment
• environmental impact
• resource efficiency
• environmental policies and regulations