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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a central policy within China's regional development and foreign trade strategy. Traditional trade has typically depended on economic valuation of resources, while the embedded environmental value is rarely considered. This situation exists in most BRI trade evaluations. To address BRI environmental sustainability issues, we consider the role of pivotal Chinese provinces and their key trade partners (ASEAN countries) as an illustration for the environmental value of resource exchanges. Emergy accounting is used as the valuation tool for a sample period of seventeen years. Key results include: (1) Emergy valuations show sustainability of sample provinces decreased over time; (2) ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam play significant resource roles for provincial economic systems; (3) Diverse trends in trade between pivotal provinces and ASEAN countries resulted in an unbalanced trade structure from trade. Policy implications are proposed to promote a more globally sustainable and fair trade using BRI as an established trade policy.

Clean energy can lead to significant health benefits. Making it accessible throughout the world can address many ills. We delve deeply into one example—the transition toward clean residential heating and its relationship to health benefits—in China. We find that the health benefits can outweigh costs from energy expenses in northern provinces. Low-income households enjoy larger health benefits but also experience a higher expense increase, suggesting that extra subsidies or stimuli are needed to help them benefit from clean energy. Our findings suggest that clean energy transitions should be promoted in developing economies due to improved social health, lessened medical costs, and significant environmental improvements.

Abstract Lithium‐ion battery (LIB) usage is growing dramatically worldwide. Relatedly, there is a need for the management of end‐of‐life (EOL) LIBs. EOL requires closed‐loop systems and supply chains. Although many studies related to managing EOL in closed‐loop supply chains exist, one especially pernicious issue is overlooked—safety. This study seeks to address this major safety oversight for EOL LIBs using closed‐loop supply chains that are critical to a larger circular economy environment. The evaluation is completed along a technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework; potential research directions for mitigating safety issues are part of the analysis of this study. Specific and general research questions pertaining to secure management of EOL LIBs are put forward to help advance academic research. Practical concerns are also described for policymakers and organizations. This study reveals implications of these questions for the intersection of materials science, supply chain management, and fire‐protection engineering.

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.

Blockchain technology has been promised as a solution to social and environmental issues in supply chains. The potential includes reduction of vulnerable party exploitation and avoiding environmentally harmful practices. Yet, it remains unclear how these potential improvements are created and whether blockchain can truly contribute. Therefore, this field study explores and identifies the mechanisms for blockchain technology to facilitate positive social and environmental impacts in supply chains. We applied an explorative qualitative research approach and interviewed blockchain technology implementers and practitioners that allowed a detailed analysis of this problem despite the scarcity of practice data. The results include the development of a middle-range theory that shows barriers and drivers of blockchain-based technologies in supply chains, introduces the concept of blockchain-enabled system, and outlines expected outcomes and impacts. We further identify four impact pathways that describe how blockchain-enabled system create positive impact: (voluntary) market mechanisms, plausibility checks, smart contracts and tokenisation, and peer-to-peer trust. The study contributes by providing insights into “how” blockchain-based technologies in supply chains can lead to social and environmental impacts. The study also furthers the discussion on blockchain technology’s role in supply chain implementation and addresses the yet unresolved problem of measuring the impact of such blockchain-enabled systems.

Purpose – Due to the different institutional pressure such as those from market, regulations and competitors, companies have implemented green supply chain management (GSCM). Unfortunately, tens of GSCM practices exist. Whether all companies should implement GSCM and how to achieve both environmental and economic performance are still not clear for many companies. The purpose of this paper is to develop models that can be helpful for companies to identify right GSCM practices and implement GSCM effectively and efficiently. Design/methodology/approach – Based on about 18 years of study on GSCM with four surveys in China in 2001, 2005, 2012 and 2016, as well as numerous site visits and interviews mainly in China but also in Japan, Germany and Canada, this paper explores institutional drivers as well as opportunities and challenges using theoretical analysis and case studies. GSCM is defined considering a product life cycle. A key three-step GSCM approach is theoretically developed considering opportunities and challenges through life cycle analysis (LCA) of a product and position of a company. Findings – All companies should implement GSCM practices to avoid risks. To effectively implement GSCM practices, a company should understand the life cycle of its product and its position in the supply chain. A key three-step LCA-based approach can help companies to identify the critical GSCM practices. Originality/value – A key three-step LCA-based approach for GSCM implementation is originally developed based on theoretical analysis and eight years of study.

Degrowth can support urban sustainability, especially in the Global South. Degrowth and technological innovation have a controversial relationship, some believe they cannot function together, others believe they are supportive. This debate is evaluated and we posit that they are compatible if managed carefully with effective policies in place. We provide three technological cases from Egypt, where these cases are mapped to degrowth elements. This study is just an initial step in introducing the discourse; degrowth with environmental and social sustainability needs to be included on the map of policy makers. Policy implications include investment, awareness raising, education, and diffusion of technologies that can support degrowth.

Water embodied in traded commodities is important for water sustainability management. This study provides insight into China's water footprint and virtual water trade using three specific water named Green, Blue and Grey. A multi-region input-output analysis at national and sectoral analysis levels from the years 1995 to 2009 is conducted. The evolution and position of China's virtual water trade across a global supply chain are explored through cluster analysis. The results show that China represented 11.2% of the global water footprint in 1995 and 13.6% in 2009. The green virtual water is the largest of China's exports and imports. In general, China is a net exporter of virtual water during this time period. China mainly imports virtual water from the USA, India and Brazil, and mainly exports virtual water to the USA, Japan and Germany. The agriculture sector and the food sector represent the sectors with both the largest import and export virtual water quantities. China's global virtual water trade network has been relatively stable from 1995 to 2009. China has especially close relationships with the USA, Indonesia, India, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Australia. Trade relations, resource endowment and supply-demand relationships may play key roles in China's global virtual water footprint network rather than geographical location. Finally, policy implications are proposed for China's long term sustainable water management and for global supply chain management in general. Keywords: Water footprint, Global supply chain, Cluster analysis, Virtual water trade, China

Sustainable supplier selection plays an important role in sustainable supply chain management operations and implementation. In this paper a novel formal modeling approach is conceptually developed and presented to address sustainable supplier selection. Grey theory and TOPSIS, a distance based multiple criteria method, are used for the integration and evaluation of sustainable supplier performance for sustainable supplier selection. From a research perspective, TOPSIS is improved to more effectively deal with grey numbers by integrating a degree of likelihood rather than converting grey numbers into crisp numbers functions, and it provides more flexible supplier rankings. This methodology strengthens the sustainable supplier selection process, and can be applied to other multiple criteria decision making problems. Illustrative calculations are made using data on sustainable supplier selection and evaluation published by Bai and Sarkis (2010). The technique is relatively accurate, matching well with results from a published grey rough set approach. The methodology easily implementable with minimal complex calculations required. It can also provide support for sustainable supplier selection, benchmarking, and improvement decisions. This is one of the first papers to integrate a broad set of sustainability factors for grey-based TOPSIS and supplier selection.

Supply chain flexibility is an important operations strategy dimension for organizations to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. With rising greener customer expectations and increasingly stringent environmental regulations, green supply chains are now viewed as another competitive weapon. Green supply chains are characterized by higher complexity and turbulence. Green supply chain flexibility can aid organizations function in this complex and uncertain environment, yet investigation into this area is very limited. This paper aims contribute to this field by investigating green supply chain flexibility achievement through information systems. This paper introduces a green supply chain flexibility matrix framework. Given the large data needs, as described in the matrix, a novel probability evaluation methodology that can help predict rankings of projects and programs is introduced. The methodology extends a TOPSIS based three-parameter interval grey number (TpGN) approach by incorporating neighborhood rough set theory (RST) to evaluate IS programs’ green flexibility support capability. The results of this methodology are more objective and effective for two reasons. (1) The results are predictive rankings based on probability degree instead of the fixed deterministic ranks. (2) Neighborhood rough set theory used in this study can limit loss of information when compared to rough set theory, yet still simplify extensive data sets. This paper also identifies study limitations and future research directions for green supply chain flexibility.

The circular economy (CE) is an emergent concept to rethink and redesign how our economy works. The concept recognizes effective and efficient economic functioning at multiple scales—governments and individuals, globally and locally; for businesses, large and small. CE represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience at multiple levels (macro, meso and micro); generating new business and economic opportunities while providing environmental and societal benefits. Blockchain, an emergent and critical technology, is introduced to the circular economy environment as a potential enabler for many circular economic principles. Blockchain technology supported information systems can improve circular economy performance at multiple levels. Product deletion, a neglected but critical effort in product management and product portfolio management, is utilized as an illustrative business scenario as to blockchain’s application in a circular economy research context. Product deletion, unlike product proliferation, has received minimal attention from both academics and practitioners. Product deletion decisions need to be evaluated and analyzed in the circular economy context. CE helps address risk aversion issues in product deletions such as inventory, waste and information management. This paper is the first to conceptualize the relationships amongst blockchain technology, product deletion and the circular economy. Many nuances of relationships are introduced in this study. Future evaluation and critical reflections are also presented with a need for a rigorous and robust research agenda to evaluate the multiple and complex relationships and interplay amongst technology, policy, commerce and the natural environment.