Putting sustainability into supply chain management

The aim of this paper is to identify key categories of Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and related practices that are required to fulfill the demands of sustainability and, therefore, contributing to sustainability performance. As part of this, the authors will identify different approaches in practice implementation in SSCM and supply chain management (SCM). SSCM has become a topic of great interest and is linked to the assumption that a more sustainable performance for businesses would be achieved on its implementation. Such performance has to be achieved with respect to all three dimensions of sustainability.

The paper is conceptual in nature. The authors draw from literature on SSCM and examine frameworks and critical accounts on the topic. This allows identifying key aspects of SSCM and pointing out differences and overlaps with SCM.

The authors identify five key categories which are of high importance for the sustainable management of supply chains: orientation toward SCM and sustainability, continuity, collaboration, risk management and proactivity. In a second step, the authors describe distinctive practices which allow organizations to follow the goals formulated in the five key categories. Finally, they highlight issues preventing companies that follow a rather “conventional” approach to SCM to reach the level where it can be called SSCM, i.e. how to reach sustainability performance in SCM.

The work presented is conceptual in nature. It would be required to operationalize respective categories and, therefore, test them in empirical research.

The categories and practices identified within the framework can be used for guiding managers toward the implementation of SSCM. This is the case when management takes performance implication into account without solely considering rather simplistic indicators. At the same time, differentiating a company based on the implementation of sustainability practices has become more difficult, due to the proliferation of sustainability in a wider field.

Social aspects are integrated into the framework on the same level as environmental and economic aspects, emphasizing the triple bottom line orientation.

While all practices applied in SSCM have originally been identified and described by researchers for the case of “conventional” SCM, their particular interrelation and joint implementation makes up SSCM and ensures a contribution to sustainability performance.