Towards greener trade and global supply chain environmental accounting. An embodied environmental resources blockchain design

Abstract

International trade, through global supply chains, is central to global sustainable production and consumption. Redistribution of environmental resources impacts through international trade has become apparent in ecological research – and may have long-term design and planning implications for production and supply chain management. However, current trade and production accounting methods are still incapable of providing accurate and reliable results for policymakers and organisational decision makers to manage global and supply chain trade issues. In this study, a blockchain-based conceptual framework for embodied environmental resources accounting in trade is proposed to address global supply chain and trade issues. Framework design, benefits, and challenges are also discussed. Future research and linkage to theory are also provided. This study provides a strong systemic foundation for managing environmental resources at the nexus of international trade, sustainable production, and global supply chains.

KEYWORDS:

• Trade
• blockchain
• embodied flows
• sustainable production and consumption
• supply chain
• international

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the comments from the anonymous reviewers of this paper. This study was partially supported by the TEC-LOGd Chaire sponsored by the Hauts-de-France region and the Cambrai Agglomeration Community.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Environmental management accounting for trade may include various organisations and countries. Typically, in environmental management accounting, environmental and resource management (sustainability) performance measures are emphasised. Supply chains can be part of environmental management accounting depending on the level of analysis (e.g. national, international, organisational, products) (e.g. Schaltegger et al. 2022). Traditional supply chain accounting focuses at the inter-organisational level. In traditional supply chain accounting costs, inventory, and other business or economic performance measures, controls and information are managed or reported (e.g. see Shi and Yu 2013). In our case our environmental management accounting focuses almost exclusively on embodied environmental resources and emissions of material and product flows. Supply chain accounting has evolved to include sustainability dimensions with a focus on specific supply chains and products from both financial and management accounting perspectives (Bremmers 2006). The blockchain framework and this study can contribute to each of these areas, although supply chain accounting activities such as disclosure and emergent transparency items have typically ignored EER. EER based environmental management accounting can contribute to and complement traditional and sustainable supply chain accounting.

2 Unit Emergy Values (UEVs) are calculated based on the emergy (solar energy) required to produce products and services. There are typically three main types of UEVs: transformity, specific emergy, and emergy per unit of money see (Brown and Ulgiati 2016) for additional details on characteristics of this data.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number 72274120; Shanghai Pujiang Program under Grant number 2020PJC078. This study was partially supported by the TECLOGd Chaire sponsored by the Hauts-de-France region and the Cambrai Agglomeration Community.

Notes on contributors

Xu Tian

Xu Tian is an associate professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, and the SJTU-UNIDO Joint Institute of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She mainly focuses on research including environmental resources impacts of trade, sustainable production and consumption, and low carbon development. She has published more than 60 papers in academic journals such as Nature-Climate Change andEnvironmental Science and Technology.

Joseph Sarkis

Joseph Sarkis is a Professor in the Business School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His research and teaching are in the areas of operations, supply chain, technology, and sustainability management. He has been a highly cited scholar for many years with over 500 publications. He is holder of the TEC-LOGd Chair de Excellence on technology, transportation, circular economy, and sustainable supply chains at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France. . He does his best to live sustainably.