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Socially sustainable and resilient supply chains are critical for organizations to succeed during both normal and uncertain times. Informed by supply chain disruption events, this study uses the resource-based view to conceptualize a performance framework for firms to strategically measure supply chain social sustainability and resilience capabilities. The performance framework integrates (a) the environmental goods valuation to evaluate social sustainability and (b) digitalization using blockchain technology to enhance supply chain process sustainability and resilience. Using secondary COVID-19 supply chain disruption data, the performance framework illustrates various social sustainability implications, market-based valuation methods, and supporting blockchain capabilities for supply chains. The study identifies potential future research to further evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed performance measurement framework and to advance it theoretically. The study also suggests practitioners utilize the performance measurement framework to manage supply chain social sustainability issues and resilience such that it can contribute to their competitive advantages.

Environmental issues are globally important to organizations in both developed and emerging economies. With this importance increasing organizations have committed to going beyond compliance to adopt more proactive environmental strategies. Drawing from resource-based and resource dependence theories, this study investigates whether firm internationalization and environmental dynamism influence the role of social capital to advance proactive environmental strategy inclusion. Using survey data from 122 Chinese firms we find that a firm's social capital positively relates to proactive environmental strategy inclusion. Parlaying internationalization and environmental dynamism concerns results in a three-way interaction effect between social capital and proactive environmental strategic inclusion. The results strongly suggest that firms facing more dynamic environments can benefit from internationalization to further strengthen the relationship between social capital and proactive environmental strategy inclusion, this moderation is not true for internationalization alone, which is a surprising finding. The outcome findings confirm the preponderance of literature that show proactive environmental strategy inclusion leads to positive firm growth. The results further support managerial and organizational rationale for building organizational social capital capabilities. The social capital provides internal and external relationship resources resulting in more proactive environmental initiatives and ultimately in firm growth.

Proponents present the circular economy as an alternative to traditional, linear systems that use natural resources indiscriminately. The puzzle guiding this perspective piece is that the circular economy model needs further investigation in more diverse, unstructured contexts. With economic growth at the top of the agenda for Global South countries, testing the relevance of the circular economy in these contexts is important. There remain questions about whether the adoption and upscaling of circular principles and practices can contribute to economic development in contexts where social factors, such as high inequality, collide with environmental factors, such as high natural biodiversity. Another blind spot concerns how the structural conditions in Global South countries, such as vast informal economies, hinder this transition, and what new forms of organisation can facilitate the implementation of innovative circular practices. This perspective calls for greater attention from the academic community to help fill in some of the missing pieces in the puzzle of the informal economy and the circular economy.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has undeniably influenced the global economy and environment. Major victims of the COVID-19 outbreak are Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), especially in developing countries, mainly because of limited use of digital technologies. This paper employs a literature review and personal insights to provide COVID-19 pandemic digitization lessons for sustainable development of MSEs from a technology for social good perspective. We develop a framework to support post COVID-19 digital transformation for sustainable development of MSEs. We find that digital payments, especially mobile money, should be a critical digital transformation priority for MSEs. Also, institutions must support MSE resources and capabilities to adopt digital transformation for business continuity, and sustainable production and consumption. Our study suggests that MSE managers and other stakeholders rethink their business strategies, incorporating crisis scenarios and business continuity plans to sustain customers virtually to enhance sustainable development. We also propose further research areas to improve the successful digital transformation of MSEs post COVID-19.

Emergy analysis has been gaining attention in its use as an environmental accounting tool. Its relationships and implications to sustainable supply chains and the circular economy are still not well understood, even with initial investigations into the relationship. Emergy analysis can potentially provide additional profound opportunities to advancing these sustainability-oriented fields. Emergy analysis—as a basis for economic, social and environmental performance measurements—uses donor side valuation approaches. We discuss how sustainable supply chain management and circular economy performance measurement methods can be expanded and effectively utilize emergy analysis using a donor-side evaluation. We provide insights into more effective environmentally sustainable supply chain and circularity performance evaluation, accounting, and appraisal using emergy based performance measurements. Our findings show that there is ample room for further application and theoretical development at the nexus of these topics. Practically, the measures and approaches for emergy analysis can help decision makers in organizations and across supply chains in managing material sourcing, supplier selection, and network and circular economy flow designs. A theoretical synthesis and research gaps are introduced to help guide future theoretical developments and practical investigations. This work is valuable for those seeking to advance research on sustainability and performance analysis for organizational and supply chain levels of analysis.

Summary Urbanization and population growth have contributed to a tripling of building material consumption from 2000 to 2017. Building materials have a range of environmental impacts throughout their life cycle, from extraction, processing, and transport of raw materials to building construction, use, and eventual demolition and waste. Mitigation measures that target specific materials or value chain stages may therefore have incremental or even adverse net environmental effects. In this perspective, we develop a framework for applying life cycle thinking to identify key impacts and corresponding mitigation approaches, inform building design and material selection, and ensure effective treatment and recycling of construction and demolition wastes. Life cycle evaluation can also be used to assess and avoid environmental trade-offs among life cycle stages. Challenges for implementing these life cycle principles include collecting and integrating inventory data for products, managing multiple stakeholders within the construction industry, and monitoring end-of-life impacts; measures for overcoming such challenges are discussed.

The effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remind us of our arrogance of ignorance. Society has suffered. We are emerging scarred but enlightened. Can COVID-19 lessons help us avoid repeating the same mistakes with future climate shocks? We offer a supply-chain perspective and a set of pragmatic actions to increase resilience to climate shocks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed businesses and societies to the shortfalls of normal patterns of production, consumption, and their long-lasting impact on supply chains. In this opinion paper, we provide insights from the COVID-19 pandemic for making supply chains more resilient, transparent, and sustainable. These insights include supply chains needing to develop localization, agility, and digitization (LAD) characteristics. We link LAD to a potential solution using blockchain technology and circular economy principle capabilities. Use cases are used to show how blockchain-enabled circular economy practices can support supply chain LAD efforts. Supply chain tracking, tracing, and responsiveness can be supported blockchain-enabled circular economy practices. One result of identifying these relationships include solutions and insights at multiple levels and stakeholders – individual, organizational, supply chain, governmental, and community. These crisis-related observations and findings set a future research foundation for sustainable production and consumption., Graphical Abstract Image, graphical abstract

Contemporary multi-tier supply chains are increasingly international, complex, and challenging for suppliers and focal companies. In addition to this, internal and external stakeholders, regulators, consumers and non-governmental organizations all now require firms to take responsibility for and action towards mitigating unsustainable practices and misconduct in their supply chains. In dealing with this complex supply chain context, quantitative modeling approaches are relevant in their ability to capture the complexity of problems in order to propose effective and sustainable solutions. The main objective of this study is to review selected literature on the effective management of sustainability in supply chains, and its attendant implications for multi-tier supply chain modeling problems. Previously published modeling research that may directly or indirectly provide lessons for multi-tier sustainable supply chains is investigated utilizing the Scopus database. After analyzing the relevant literature, we deliver the following contributions: (a) a systematization and classification of the selected papers; (b) a description of 16 research gaps that remain in the literature and that may be useful in expanding research efforts in this domain; (c) four lessons for both practitioners and managers dealing with sustainability in multi-tier supply chains; (d) an integrative framework which encapsulates key areas of focus to develop multi-tier sustainable supply chains. Implications for theory and practice are suggested, as well as limitations concerning the scope of this systematic review.

Sustainability issues pervade the supply chain deep into the recesses of various global regions and resources. Supply chains can become quite complex as they form multiple tiers of organizations and across networks. Solving anthropocentric pressures on the environment and human society means compelling supply chains to alleviate their environmental and social burdens. The strategic and operational complexities of multi-tier supply chain sustainability are transcendent. Addressing these concerns is still in its relative infancy amongst business, engineering, and production economics solutions. It is within this environment that this special issue in the International Journal of Production Economics advances this important research stream. Twenty-three articles using multiple methodologies, theories, and developments provide insights, clarifications and potential solutions to some of the most pernicious problems of multi-tier sustainable supply chains. This editorial overviews the various contentions, study interrelationships, whilst providing some future research directions.

Third-party reverse logistics provider (3PRLP) selection plays an important role in the operation and implemention of reverse logistics or reverse supply chains. Economic and cost based partner relationships are no longer acceptable for 3PRLPs or for organizations that seek to introduce sustainable supply chain management. Recent emphasis on sustainability has made 3PRLP evaluation and selection more complex. In order to advance this area of research and to help further incorporate sustainability into 3PRLPs selection modeling, a novel multi-stage, multi-method, multi-criteria approach is developed. Methodologically, this is the first time that neighborhood rough set (NRS) theory is integrated with TOPSIS and VIKOR techniques. Neighborhood rough set, as a data management and soft computation tool, can help reduce the number of 3PRLP to be evaluated and ranked using TOPSIS combined with VIKOR's compromise conception decision tools. A conceptual application is developed using business, environmental, and social factors within the context of reverse logistics management decisions. A sensitivity analysis evaluating various neighborhood rough set parameters is also introduced to investigate robustness of solutions using the multi-stage methodology. Methodological implications and future research and application directions conclude the paper.

This work makes the case for the integration of the circular economy (CE) and large-scale data (LD), also known as big data. The paper is one of the first to integrate conceptual and practical trends regarding: (a) the ReSOLVE based models of the circular economy; (b) key stakeholders roles in pursuing a more sustainable society; and (c) the volume, velocity, variety, and veracity (4V's) of large-scale data (LD) management. This study's contributions include: (1) introducing a new integrative framework to enhance the understanding of the CE-LD nexus; (2) a relational matrix which illustrates the complexity of large-scale data and stakeholders management; and (3) a research agenda, with clear research propositions and future research direction. The proposed CE-LD integrative framework provides socio-technical insights for academics, practitioners, managers, and policy decision-makers.

Technological and market cycles pressure organizations to introduce new products. To make room for the new products, product deletion (PD) decisions are inevitable. PD implementation, however, is beyond the reactive elimination of mature or low-profit products. As a competitive and proactive managerial tool, PD requires incorporation of supply chain financial and non-financial attributes to not only benefit organizations, but also maintain important partnerships. To successfully apply strategic PD, consideration of a broader set of decision factors is necessary. To update the traditional view, this paper introduces supply chain and competitive factors to product deletion decision-making (PDDM). Given the complex multi-criteria problem, including both qualitative and quantitative factors and the relative uncertainties and interaction between the factors, a Nested-Fuzzy Inference System with Interactions (NFISI) model as part of a multi-stage, multi-method expert system is introduced to aid the decision-making process. The model is verified using a practical case in a major fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company. The priority of alternative products for deletion is obtained through the application of the developed model considering the newly introduced factors. The results provide initial, albeit idiosyncratic, insights with a discussion of practical implications. It is demonstrated that considering supply chain factors makes a difference in PDDM outcomes. A brief overview of research opportunities is finally presented to guide researchers in contributing to this under-studied subject.

In developing economies agriculture and farming play crucial roles for economic sustainable development. Farmer credit risk evaluation is an important issue when determining financial support to farmers, improving agricultural supply chain performance, and ensuring profitability of financial institutions. Credit risk evaluation, or creditworthiness, is not a trivial exercise due to various complexities. Honoring complexity is necessary to effectively evaluate and predict farmer creditworthiness. A methodology using fuzzy rough-set theory and fuzzy C-means clustering is used to evaluate and investigate the complex relationships between farmer characteristics, competitive environmental factors, and farmer credit level. The methodology is detailed using actual bank data from 2044 farmers within China. This empirical methodology generates decision rules that provide insight to more complex relationships than can be found through standard econometric multivariate approaches. A rule-based methodological outcome can be used to predict the creditworthiness of farmers and to aid in agricultural loan decision making. Prediction accuracy of the rule-base was 81.16%. A central finding is that education and skills related characteristics are important for determining farmer credit-worthiness. Other implications are presented along with study limitations and future research directions.

Despite Russia’s large ecological footprint, there has been limited examination of environmental sustainability initiatives in Russian corporations. Drawing on research on the importance of employee-level behaviors for the success of corporate sustainability initiatives, we focus on the proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs) of Russian employees. We integrate scholarship on employees’ PEBs and the Russian cultural context to offer theory regarding three potentially important antecedents of employees’ PEBs: top management commitment to sustainability, the immediate manager’s environmental leadership, and the employee’s motivation. Using self-report data from management development program attendees in Russia (N = 165), we examined the links between these factors and employees’ PEBs. We also tested whether top management commitment moderated the impact of immediate managers’ leadership on employees’ PEBs. We found that the immediate manager’s active environmental leadership (i.e., transformational, contingent reward, and active management by exception) was positively related to employees’ PEBs. Managers’ passive-avoidant environmental leadership (i.e., passive management by exception and laissez-faire) was negatively related to PEBs, but only when top management was committed to sustainability. Employees’ motives were linked to PEBs, but the nature of the relationship varied across motives. External motivation was negatively related to PEBs, suggesting that using rewards to motivate PEBs may be detrimental. Motivation that came from a desire to fulfill one’s values or avoid feeling bad about oneself was positively associated with PEBs. Our work provides a foundation for future research on PEBs in Russia, and suggests new directions for research on employees’ PEBs in other settings.

The growth of vendor procurement and supply chain management simultaneously emerged as organizational outsourcing practices increased. Outsourcing, as an important strategic organizational practice, needs to be carefully examined from an organizational performance perspective to ensure satisfactory quality of services and goods from supply chains. This article provides a model for performance assessment of an outsourcer's processes in a supply chain comprised of several internal and external entities. Internal entities are entities in a supply chain that the outsourcer can manage and control. External entities are entities whose processes are not within the management sphere and control of the outsourcer, yet affect an outsourcer's performance. A slacks-based measure is incorporated into a hybrid network data envelopment analysis model to evaluate the outsourcer performance incorporating both entity types. A case study of a service supply chain in the banking industry comprised of a commercial bank, its sub-processes, and an external investment bank is used as an illustrative application of the model. Insights are presented and future research directions are identified.

Sub-supplier compliance with a focal firm's corporate sustainability standards (CSS) is increasingly recognized as an important dimension of sustainable supply chain management. This paper draws on recent sub-supplier management studies and their critical success factors (CSFs) to investigate the interrelationships between and strengths of CSFs. While previous research focused on the perspective and practices only of focal firms, this exploratory field study investigated a focal firm, one of its suppliers and one of its sub-suppliers in a multi-tier supply chain setting. Our findings suggest that sub-supplier assessment and collaboration are influenced by (1) the committed long-term relationship between the direct supplier and the sub-supplier, (2) the involvement of the direct supplier, and (3) the focal firm's buyer-power over the direct supplier. In return, sub-supplier assessment and collaboration influence those and further CSFs in a feedback loop, enabling virtuous or vicious cycle effects. The perspective of the sub-supplier revealed substantial differences to the supplier and the focal firm, in particular the lower feedback loop effect of collaboration on CSFs.

This paper investigates the extent to which supply chain greening and buttressing (building robustness) strategies are supportive or conflicting. A supply chain design model is introduced which uses an environmental performance scoring approach and a robustness measure to explore the relationship between greening and buttressing. Potential tradeoffs to develop robustly green and greenly robust supply chains are evaluated. Data from a multinational apparel company is used. Results show both greening and buttressing can be costly, green supply chains are most sensitive to disruption, robust supply chains have strong long term benefits, and buttressing a green supply chain is a good investment.

Product management activities have typically focused on the innovation, acquisition, expansion and management of product lines and products. However, product deletion or discontinuation is also critical. Despite its strategic importance, product deletion has received relatively less attention in both academia and practice. Researchers have conceptually investigated product deletion, its influence on firm's resources, the factors influencing product deletion decisions, and the product deletion process. However, very few papers have related product deletion decisions to supply chain management, especially when leanness and sustainability are major objectives. This paper aims to integrate lean and sustainable supply chain dimensions with product deletion by proposing a multilevel decision model that can facilitate a product deletion decision with an objective of developing a leaner and more sustainable supply chain. The model has three major decision dimensions with 8 factors with 29 influencing determinants. The model uses an integrated analytical hierarchy/network process (AHP/ANP) and a benefits, opportunities, cost and risks (BOCR) analysis. An illustrative company scenario is provided for the model application. The paper contributes by filling an important gap by integrating lean and sustainable supply chain management and product deletion literature to formulate a product deletion decision making model which aids in enhancing the leanness and sustainability of supply chains. The model also allows for cross-functional participation involving marketing, operations, finance, and environmental sustainability fields.

Despite the importance of employees' proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs) for the success of corporate sustainability initiatives, there is limited evidence on the mechanisms that facilitate such behaviors. We address this research gap by exploring the factors that underlie employees' PEBs. Drawing on leadership and motivation theories, we develop and test a model of the factors that facilitate employees' PEBs. We focus on employees' 1) perceptions of their immediate managers' environmental transformational leadership, 2) environmental values and 3) internal and external motivation to perform PEBs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) of self-report survey data from 251 manufacturing employees found that employees who saw their managers as engaging in greater environmental transformational leadership reported higher internal and external motivation. Employees' environmental values were also positively associated with their internal and external motivation. Moreover, employees' values moderated the link between leadership and motivation; leadership perceptions were most positively related to internal motivation when employees possessed strong environmental values. Thus, environmental transformational leadership may be most effective in boosting internal motivation among employees who possess strong environmental values. Employees' internal, but not external, motivation was positively related to their self-reported PEBs, suggesting that increasing internal motivation may be particularly important to facilitating PEBs. Employees' leadership perceptions had a direct positive relationship with their self-reported PEBs. Overall, our findings reinforce the importance of immediate managers' leadership, and provide new evidence suggesting that employees' values influence their responses to that leadership. Further, internal motivation may be a key mechanism by which employees' leadership perceptions and values are linked to PEBs.

Successful Food-energy-water (FEW) nexus projects will be more likely to succeed if a transdisciplinary approach is used. Ecological modernization (ecological technology) policies and practices, and sustainable supply chains influence the FEW nexus from a commerce and industry perspective. Taking these perspectives and considering their intertwined linkages is important for advancing research and adoption of FEW nexus efforts. This paper provides an overview of these perspectives and interlinkages. A biosolids case study is used to exemplify the complexities and interactions of these four thematic perspectives: the FEW nexus, transdisciplinarity, ecological modernization, and sustainable supply chains. An integrative multi-level analysis scheme is used to analyze interrelationships. This analysis and the case study help to identify a series of research opportunities to further this nascent field. Research opportunities include methodological developments, attitudinal and social concerns, performance indicator systems, and meta-social evolutions in technology and policy.

This paper presents a multiperiod supply chain with freight carriers network model. In this model manufacturers, retailers, and carriers maximize the net present value (NPV) of their investments in ecologically friendly technology. Future production, inventory, transaction, and transportation costs savings are used to help fund investments. The environmental impact of production, inventory, transportation, and consumption of products in the supply chain network are all integrated. The tradeoff between the initial technology investment and its ecological footprint effect is considered for the supply chain planning period. We provide variational inequality formulations of the equilibrium conditions and then propose the modified projection method, along with conditions for convergence. Numerical examples are examined with an analysis of the effects of ecologically friendly technology investments on supply chain network production, transportation, and sales.

Trade plays an important role in redistributing resources and also brings significant environmental impacts to involved countries. This relatively complex research domain of international trade and environmental burden shifts is informed through study of embodied environmental flows of products. Research trends to identify features of international trade embodied flows between 1997 and 2016 are determined through a bibliometric study. Research contribution of countries, authors, institutions and journals are described. Co-citation and network analyses are completed. Results show that there has been significant research interest increase on this topic. Given the interdisciplinary and global nature of this topic, increases in countries, author, and institutional collaborations has occurred. USA, China, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Norway were the top 5 countries with high academic influence, and country as USA and institution as Chinese Academy of Sciences has the largest number of collaborations, respectively. Embodied flows such as carbon emission and water are popular ones associated with international trade in the given period, and the most popular methodological tool is Input/Output Analysis. In addition, hotspots which extracted from keywords are analyzed, additional avenues of research are also discussed in this study.

Stakeholder pressure, from actors including regulators, consumers and non-governmental organizations, has made organizations more responsible for poor environmental performance of their direct and sub-suppliers. Thus, green multi-tier supplier management (GMSM) has become an emergent topic. Yet it is still unclear how to enable GMSM practices effectively, i.e. how to enable sub-suppliers' environmental performance improvement. To help address the gap in the literature, this paper aims to identify enablers for sub-suppliers' environmental performance improvement, and it further applies a Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)-based case study method to evaluate inter-relationships among these enablers and improve the focal company's GMSM practices, by using action research (AR) method principles. The data analysis and discussion with a follow-up evaluation after two years provided insights for the successful implementation of GMSM. The results show that top managers’ support from the organizations is a prominent and necessary foundational enabler. An interesting observation is that close proximity of supply chain members is regarded as a very prominent enabler. Evaluation and feedback on these enablers two years later found that the enabler mapping was beneficial, allowing them to address the most influential enablers, and thus the GMSM practices of the focal company has been highly improved. This paper concludes with directions for further research.

Internal rate of return (IRR) is a widely used tool in ranking capital budgeting projects and eventual accept or reject decisions. In this paper, we consider an investment decision involving a sustainable, energy efficient, greenhouse gases (GHG) reducing asset and incorporate the value of carbon emission allowances for the investing company. These allowances create cash flows that may be characterized by significant volatility and uncertainty. The methodology developed in this paper allows decision makers to integrate their knowledge of carbon trading markets and the cash flows that result from sale of emissions credits. The novel methodology utilizes a Bayesian model for IRR that uses Gibbs sampler. Analysis of the results shows that IRR is influenced by volatility and uncertainty of carbon credit cash flows. Ignoring those uncertainty characteristics and simply using the expected values of cash flows can result in significantly inaccurate investment rate of returns. When compared to deterministic IRR calculations, the results show that the occurrence of very high and very low cash flows affects IRR positively, whereas higher variability of cash flow distribution affects IRR of GHG-reducing asset negatively. In other words, frequent large or small cash flows are preferred over fluctuating cash flows. The results may also provide a rationale for the existence of an anomalous consumer behavior known as the energy efficiency gap.

Marketing green products requires different approaches than marketing non-green products (e.g., to counteract consumer prioritization of self-interest and focus on the short-term vs. long-term). As a result, green marketing has a substantial body of academic research. The purpose of our paper is to synthesize and provide a comprehensive overview of individual-level consumer behavior theories in green marketing. We begin by defining the term green marketing. Next, we conduct a large-scale review of more than 20 consumer-level theories grouped into six categories. For each theory, we present its definition, application in green marketing, and suggestions for future areas of research. Despite the breadth of theories that we uncovered, most studies indicate that few consumers will pay more for green products and that behavior in one environmental context does not necessarily translate into comparable behavior in another context. Another important finding is a great disconnect between consumer green purchasing intention and actual green purchasing behavior. To address this challenge, we provide two groups of additional applicable theories that have not yet been applied to green marketing. These theory groups are behavioral intentions, or non-economic green purchase influencers, and instantiaters, which moderate the motivation – green purchase behavior link. Managers can use our conceptual framework illustrating the relationship among these theories to help understand the stages in a consumer's green purchase process. Our study also can aid managers in developing tools to achieve a competitive marketplace advantage.

Sustainable transitions are highly dependent on technological solutions, yet concerns arise regarding resource scarcity and supply-chain management. In this issue of One Earth, Hao et al. provide a technological forecast for platinum-group metals (PGMs), crucial for fuel cell technology. They allay fears of untimely PGM depletion but make several important assumptions.

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has been developed for decades as a solution for multi-level social and environmental improvement. Circular economy (CE) also has many perspectives and generally has been introduced for investigating sustainability at multiple levels. Organizations are informed and encouraged by management theories to build their supply chain strategies at the SSCM-CE nexus, including stakeholder theory, institutional theory, nature resource-based view, amongst others. As the scholarly and practical interests in SSCM and CE increase, there is a need to expand the current conceptual understanding and theoretical boundaries. Theory development for broader issues at the SSCM-CE nexus is limited, leaving managers, policy makers, civil society activists, and other stakeholders with insufficient grounding for important decisions and direction. In this paper, we explore some promising emerging theories which may provide additional conceptual lenses for SSCM and CE, inlcuding organizational learning, social innovation, and social learning. We develop a dynamic sustainable supply chain-circular economy management framework as a conceptual map over which theoretical boundaries from the existing and emergent theories are overlaid. Future research directions are also provided and discussed to conclude this paper.

In this perspective paper we introduce the concept of social credits and a circular and social credit exchange. The proposal is to develop an credit exchange where individuals, organizations, and policymakers can help finance socially and environmentally beneficial programs and projects.

Neodymium is widely used for magnetic materials in electronic devices, electric vehicles and home appliances. China is facing challenges of increased neodymium demand and a lack of neodymium recycling systems. However, few studies focus on neodymium resource utilization in China—a major consumer of this resource. This study traces and forecasts neodymium flows and stocks in China using dynamic material flow analysis from a life cycle perspective. The results show that China's demand for neodymium at the use stage had increased over 20 times during 2000-2017. By contrast, official neodymium production has only doubled, indicating the existence of illegal mining to meet the increasing neodymium demand. Also, the total net neodymium exports have continuously decreased due to reduced export of primary products and intermediate products. In addition, smuggling of primary products remains an issue and needs to be eliminated. Wind turbines and electric vehicles will become major neodymium consumption sectors greatly increasing future demand requirements. To avoid insufficient recycling and illegal neodymium mining, more appropriate neodymium management policies should be released to balance neodymium supply and demand.

Critical resources are key for low carbon development. International trade in critical resources is commonplace. It is important to clarify country roles within this trade network so that resource supply risk can be mitigated and low carbon industries can be supported. This study investigates global trade of typical ores and chemical compounds for lithium-ion batteries—lithium carbonate, cobalt oxide, nickel sulfate, manganese sulfate, nickel ore and manganese ore. The period 2010–2018 is selected to explore different country roles using network analysis. A competition trade model is developed to identify relationships between countries. A critical resource influence model is developed using bootstrap percolation theory to simulate impacts arising from dominant countries—those countries with rich resource endowments or mature markets. Results show that dominant countries tend to maintain close trade relationships. Trade scale is a key factor influencing each country's trade competitiveness and influence. Several policy recommendations are proposed to promote sustainable resource trade and use.

Both Industry 4.0 and sustainability have gained momentum in the academic, managerial and policy debate. Despite the relevance of the topics, the relation between Industry 4.0 and sustainability – revealed by many authors – is still unclear; literature is fragmented. This paper seeks to overcome this limit by developing a systematic literature review of 117 peer-reviewed journal articles. After descriptive and content analyses, the work presents a conceptualization and theoretical framework. The paper contributes to both theory and practice by advancing current understanding of Industry 4.0 and sustainability, especially the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on sustainability practices and performance.

Blockchain technology has been widely touted for building and supporting supply chain management capabilities. The technology has substantial potential to enhance operational effectiveness and profitability. Blockchain platform evaluation and selection still requires investigation. Blockchain platform selection and adoption decision making in a multi-organizational supply chain context is complex. Effective blockchain adoption and operations requires consideration of multiple vendors—service providers—and platforms while satisfying multiple users and stakeholders. This study introduces a managerial decision support method to assist organizations evaluate and select joint blockchain service vendor and platforms for multiple organizational functions and organizations. Using literature and practice, we introduce blockchain service vendor and platform attributes from user, vendor, and platform perspectives. A social network theory lens sets the foundation for an innovative group decision-making method—a DEMATEL-based hierarchical best-worst method—integrating characteristics from this decision environment. The technological and distributed network nature of blockchain technology requires evaluation by decision makers from various levels of a supply chain network. These decision makers will likely have varying blockchain technology knowledge and subjective preferences that need integration. The proposed method helps to operationalize social network relationships to comprehend partial and idiosyncratic expert opinions about blockchain technology. An illustrative example and various scenarios are presented to identify managerial and research implications. Methodological limitations and future research are presented for this emergent managerial and technological concern across supply chains.

Significant anthropocentric environmental impact derives from civil construction. In developing countries, such as China, Turkey, and Brazil, this sector plays a relatively larger economic role. Adopting sustainable concrete production and usage strategies not only reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also decreases consumption of energy and water, two critical commodities likely to be in short supply in developing economies. Moreover, in developing countries, there is uneven and inadequate access to social and economic benefits (e.g., housing, roads, energy, etc.) for a substantial segment of the society. These emerging economy nations will have to engage in large scale civil construction and energy production projects to improve living conditions. As a result, transitioning to a low carbon economy becomes even more critical and at the same time more burdensome for developing countries. Due to the importance of the civil construction industry to Turkey and the industry's adverse impact on GHG emissions and resulting climate change, this study investigates measurement and management of the total GHG emissions for a major tunnel project by a Turkish construction company. As a case study, emission values are calculated for the raw materials constituting tunnel construction rings, which are the major structural component of the tunnel. The GHG emissions--measured in equivalent carbon dioxide, (CO2e) --used in this study are the sum of the emissions during the production of the raw materials and emissions during their transportation from the suppliers to the company. The results are also useful across countries who utilize similar concrete specifications as prescribed by regulators and industry associations. A broader sustainability, including socio-economic concerns, is included as complementary discussion to the emissions/environmental calculations.

The mining and extractive industry’s operations have significant harmful environmental consequences. Mining companies have started adopting green supply chain management (GSCM) practices which include green information technology systems (GITS) to help provide economic benefits while seeking minimal environmental damage. These mining organizations face significant hurdles related to introducing and implementing various GSCM practices which can address some of the environmental burdens. This study addresses this issue by adopting a GSCM practices framework and applying a novel decision support method that integrates grey numbers with DEMATEL and the NK model for evaluating and developing an implementation path model. Using a multiple case field study with input from managers of the Ghanaian gold mining industry, the adopted GSCM practices framework and methodology is applied. The results provide an evaluation and development path model to guide these organizations and managers for GSCM planning and investment decisions. The path results show that these organizations should first develop SSP (Strategic Supplier Partnership) with their suppliers for implementing GITS (Green Information Technology and Systems) and other GSCM practices. These results provide some exploratory insight and guidelines for managers and policy-makers who seek to integrate green initiatives. This study also sets the stage for further investigation of organizational greening in developing countries and the mining industry.

Globalization and greening are two major trends manufacturing. Each trend has increased organizational and supply chain risk and uncertainty. Advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) are resources that can competitively aid modern industry in this volatile and complex environment. Thus, the evaluation, selection and implementation of more environmentally conscious AMT is important for meeting global requirements, especially with respect to environmental sustainability. Although a wide variety of methods to support AMT selection and evaluation processes exist, important aspects including green flexibility performance and psychological characteristics of decision makers under risk and uncertainty are missing. This paper presents a novel method for general investment appraisal of AMT, but especially introducing the context of green flexibility within manufacturing organizations. This paper aims to (1) develop effective green flexibility measures for manufacturing firms, incorporating various economic and environmental flexibility types, (2) introduce a hybrid possibility multiple criteria decision model for AMT evaluation and ranking integrating neighborhood rough set theory and cumulative prospect theory based on the three-parameter interval grey number, and (3) investigate the application of the proposed method in an illustrative case example to help manufacturing practitioner and researchers understand how to investigate various AMTs in this decision environment. Various advantages and disadvantages of the methodology are introduced. The results are evaluated with theoretical, methodological and managerial implications identified. This paper sets the foundation for significant future research in green manufacturing flexibility in an AMT environment.