Minimizing the Carbon Footprint Through the Design of Sustainable Supply Chains

It's official -- our paper, "Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design: A Multicriteria Perspective," has now been published in the International Journal of Sustainable Engineering. It appears in the September issue, volume 3 (2010), pp. 189-197 and can be accessed here.

The paper already has been receiving a lot of attention based on queries that I have gotten from publishers to expand the paper into a book.

With all the disasters in the world from floods to heat waves and fires, rigorous methodological tools that determine how to minimize the carbon footprint through sustainable supply chain network design can make a big difference in terms of emissions and costs.

Supply chains, as complex networks, consisting of manufacturing plants, different modes of transportation and distribution, as well as possible storage technologies, can span the globe and, hence, identifying the optimal design of such networks in terms of both costs and emissions, notably, in terms of the carbon generated, can impact not only a firm's profits but also its reputation through an enhanced environmental reputation.

We are delighted that our research and paper can contribute in this direction.