The supply chain response to environmental pressures

Understanding and shaping the relationship between supply chain management and the natural environment is critical not only to human health and the environment, but to the future success of business. While the cumulative environmental impacts of industrial production are best addressed at the supply chain level, little research has connected the overall context of supply chain management, including the characteristics of environmental pressures and market drivers, to a general approach for developing operational supply chain processes that may deliver environmental and economic performance improvements. Findings from a series of semi-structured interviews indicate that there are four sources of environmental pressure currently affecting supply chain management in unique ways. These include regulations, customer demands, resources, and ethical responsibility. Corporations that are better able to identify and understand these impacts will be better positioned to address them strategically. A framework of supply chain environmental excellence is presented to illustrate how corporations may integrate environmental operating models, operational objectives, and new supply chain processes into a comprehensive corporate strategy.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Paquette, Julie Rebecca

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David H. Marks.

• Technology and Policy Program.
• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34530

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34530