Supply Chain Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Classical supply chain management focuses on profit-driven design and operation of a one-way flow of materials. However, regulatory pressure, public pressure, and increasingly scarce inputs have led to increased focus on ecological supply chain considerations. Such considerations must work in concert with profit-making, and range from directly reducing toxic inputs and waste streams to designing products, processes, and supply networks for efficient and effective remanufacturing, recycling, and reuse.

In the face of an increasing global population, the rise of new economies, and looming energy uncertainties, the supply chain is facing some of its most serious challenges. However, the modern supply chain also has unprecedented access to methodological and technological resources, which may help to mitigate risk. The challenge to supply chain management is to supply the ever-increasing and ever-demanding global population, while protecting the very environment that sustains us, today and for generations to come. This special issue of Sustainability focuses on supply chain sustainability, with particular interest in some of our most critical supply chain products: food, water, and energy. With this special issue, we seek to address some of the most pressing questions surrounding sustainable supply, including but not limited to: (1) the potential for the coexistence of environmental sensitivity, adequate supply, and profit-making, (2) strategies and tactics for achieving sustainability, and (3) sustainable supply chain design. Multi-disciplinary submissions addressing policy and technological/methodological aspects of supply chain sustainability are particularly encouraged.

Dr. Benita M. Beamon
Guest Editor