An integrative approach to assess environmental and economic sustainability in multi-tier supply chains

Abstract

Multi-tier supply chain sustainability is paramount to achieve corporate sustainability, due to the significant impacts from organisations beyond the focal firm boundaries and its direct suppliers. However, including environmental considerations within the dominant profit-centric logic of supply chain related decisions is prone to generate sustainability tensions. This work aims to support organisations address tensions between sustainability dimensions by adopting an integrative approach for sustainable supply chain management performance assessment thanks to an innovative eco-intensity based performance assessment method, which achieves a balanced consideration of environmental and economic performance in a weak sustainability perspective. The method, using primary data sourced from actual practice and featuring an indirect multi-tier approach with decentralised responsibilities across organisations, is applied to a case study of a machinery supply chain. The proposed integrative approach can support addressing sustainability tensions in the area of sustainable supply chain management, facilitate sustainable supplier evaluation and identify supply chain hotspots for operational improvement.     

Honoring complexity in sustainable supply chain research: a rough set theoretic approach (SI:ResMeth)

Abstract

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) faces greater complexity because it considers additional stakeholder requirements, broader sustainable performance objectives, increased sustainable business practices and technologies, and relationships among those entities. These additional complexities make SSCM more difficult to manage and operate than traditional supply chains. Complex systems require new methods for research especially given reductionist research paradigms of modern science. Rough set theory (RST) can be a valuable tool that will help address complexity in SSCM research and practice. To exemplify RST usefulness and applicability, an illustrative application using sustainable supply chain practices (SSCP), and environmental and economic performance outcomes is introduced. The conceptual case provides nuanced insights for researchers and practitioners in mitigating and evaluating various SSCM complexities. RST limitations and extensions are introduced.     

Towards Sustainability in Australian Social Work Field Education

The educational framework of Australian social work field education has remained static over the past few decades. Emerging challenges are creating a compelling case for change. These include increasing demand for placements, declining capacity of organisations to provide placement requirements, reduction in practitioners’ incentives and capacity to support student placements and to facilitate a work integrated learning context, and an interrelated web of policies and regulations that constrain adaptation to these changes. In a critical exploration of multiple levels of regulation and policy contexts, we argue that conventional approaches to social work field education are not sustainable given significant changes to the funding arrangements for universities and within the welfare service system. To futureproof integrative learning in social work, we advocate transformation of educational culture, policies, and design toward sustainability.

IMPLICATIONS

• Supervised placements are designed to integrate practice and academic learning but their future use as the single means for achieving this integration will be unsustainable.

• Drawing on an ecological orientation enables social work educators to position sustainability as a key consideration and response to current constraints in higher education and the field.

• Focusing on sustainability across policy, practice, and regulation contexts has potential to generate transformative change that enhances our effectiveness in futureproofing the design of integrative learning in social work.

     

Urban soil ecology as a focal point for environmental education

Direct contact with the natural world is an essential element of environmental education and a key to developing environmental literacy and a stewardship ethic. But providing this experience can be challenging in urban environments where many people believe nature only occurs “outside” the city, and urban biota are often unwelcome and perceived in negative terms. Since 80% of the United States’ population lives in or near urban areas, conservation educators and practitioners need to find ways to make nature accessible to this audience, thereby creating a public who can make informed decisions about environmental issues. Soil systems are an important, under-utilized resource for urban environmental education. Soils are ubiquitous and thus easily accessible and their communities can be effective focal points for introducing all levels of ecology, from populations to ecosystems. Soil and litter taxa are also intrinsically interesting, with discoveries of new species still being made in urban areas. By studying urban soil systems, students can develop an enhanced sense of place and an appreciation of the natural world and their connection to it thereby strengthening environmental stewardship. An important role exists for urban ecologists to work with educators to impart enthusiasm for and to augment educators’ understanding of soil systems.

Planning a sustainable reverse logistics system: Balancing costs with environmental and social concerns

The present work aims to support tactical and operational planning decisions of reverse logistics systems while considering economic, environmental and social objectives. In the literature, when addressing such systems economic aspects have been often used, while environmental concerns have emerged only recently. The social component is the one less studied and rarely the combination of the three concerns has been analyzed. This work considers the three objectives and was motivated by the challenge of supporting decision makers when managing a real case study of a recyclable waste collection system, where strategic decisions on the number and location of depots, vehicles and containers were taken beforehand. Tactical and operational decisions are studied involving the establishment of service areas for each depot and the definition and scheduling of collection routes for each vehicle. Such decisions should represent a compromise solution between the three objectives translating a sustainable reverse logistics plan. The problem is modeled as a multi-objective, multi-depot periodic vehicle routing problem with inter-depot routes. A mathematical formulation and a solution approach are proposed. An approximation to the Pareto front is obtained for the case study and the trade-offs between the objectives are discussed. A balanced solution is proposed.     

Conventionalization, civic engagement, and the sustainability of organic agriculture

It is often assumed that organic farming is synonymous with sustainable agriculture. The broad goals of sustainable agriculture include economic profitability, environmental stewardship, and community vitality. However, the “question of sustainability” (Ikerd, 2008) can be asked of any type of farming, including organic production. One way to assess sustainability is to consider farmers’ perceptions of the sustainability of their operations. I draw on data from a survey of certified organic producers in Washington State to broaden our understanding of the sustainability of organic agriculture. Specifically, I consider certified organic producers’ perceptions of the degree to which their operations contribute to broad sustainable agriculture goals. Moreover, I use multiple regression to investigate how these perceived contributions are influenced by farm conventionalization variables (e.g., organic acreage, non-organic sales, and specialization) and civic engagement variables (e.g., direct marketing, community group membership, and participation in sustainable/organic agriculture organizations) while controlling for farmer demographics and farm location. Farm conventionalization appears to have a significant negative effect on perceived contributions to environmental and social sustainability, but a significant positive effect on perceived contribution to economic sustainability. Civic engagement appears to have a significant positive effect on perceived contributions to environmental and social sustainability, but no effect on perceived contribution to economic sustainability.     

Stakeholder participation for sustainable waste management

Inadequate environmental sanitation in many cities is a major cause of diseases and is a drain on the economy by way of lost workdays, cost of treatment and cleanup activities. Municipal authorities and policymakers need to act fast to address this issue. Sustainable waste management provides a comprehensive inter-disciplinary framework for addressing the problems of managing urban solid waste, in the resource constrained developing countries where quality of such services are poor and costs are high often with no effective means of recovering them. Upgrading the coverage of waste management and services and increasing their efficiency is a precondition for improving the environmental quality of cities. This paper highlights the fact that the involvement and participation of all the stakeholders such as the waste generators, waste processors, formal and informal agencies, non-governmental organisations and financing institutions is a key factor for the sustainable waste management.     

On the sustainability of bargaining solutions in family decision models

This paper analyses the sustainability of family bargaining agreements by developing a non-cooperative game between two spouses with symmetric preferences. To that end, we develop, by using a general utility function, a repeated non-cooperative game involving two players with symmetric preferences, where the characterization of a Nash sub-game perfect equilibrium allows us to demonstrate that the spouse with the greater bargaining power has a greater incentive to reach an agreement. This result is also reproduced by using a particular example of linear preferences in consumption. However, the influence of the bargaining power on the sustainability of a bargaining solution depends on the specification of the individual preferences, as well as the degree of altruism between the spouses.