Framework for selecting carbon emission abatement projects in supply chains

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the challenges for companies that seek to invest in carbon abatement projects. Traditionally, such companies would address their own operations, but it might be more efficient to invest in improving the operations of a supplier or customer. By adopting a supply chain perspective on carbon abatement projects, this study proposes a way to account for activities beyond the company’s boundaries. First, the proposed decision-support framework enables companies to define the appropriate boundaries for carbon emission measurement and abatement and identify the relevant optimisation problem. Second, this framework describes options for optimising the level of abatement effort linked to each selected action. Third, an application of the framework to the Eastman Chemical Company reveals several real-world implications, including recommendations for where to exert carbon abatement efforts in a supply chain. As this illustrative case shows, external abatement efforts can be worthwhile in practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Supply chain management
• optimisation
• sustainability
• sustainable supply chain
• application

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. https://www.fdf.org.uk/ambition2025-pepsico-carbon-and-water.aspx, last accessed 15 October 2020.

2. https://www.danone.com › dam › about-us-impact, last accessed April 08, 2021.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Astrid Koomen

Astrid Koomen received in 2012 the MSc degree in Operations Management & Logistics at Eindhoven University of Technology TU/e. She worked in the e-commerce industry for 5 years prior to joining ASML where she currently works in Customer Supply Chain Management.

Yann Bouchery

Yann Bouchery is Associate Professor in Operations Management and a member of the Center of Excellence in Supply Chain at Kedge Business School. He holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris (France) obtained in 2012. Before joining Kedge Business School in 2019, he spent two years at Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) and five years at EM Normandie. His research interests focus on sustainable operations management and logistics and on the management of transportation systems in the hinterland of deep-sea ports. His work is published in international journals such as Production and Operations Management, Transportation Science, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics. He has also co-edited a book entitled ‘Sustainable Supply Chains: A Research-Based Textbook on Operations and Strategy’.

Tarkan Tan

Tarkan Tan is an Associate Professor in the School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He received his Ph.D. from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He spent one year at Columbia University, New York, as a Fulbright scholar, and he has spent academic terms at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Sydney Business School as a visiting scholar. He has served as the director of the Operations Management and Logistics (OML) MSc program of TU/e between 2014-2020, as an executive board member of the European Supply Chain Forum, and the BETA Research School for Operations Management and Logistics. Dr. Tan currently serves as an associate editor for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management journal. His research interests include inventory theory, capacity management, spare parts management, and supply chain management with a particular focus on sustainability. Dr. Tan has acquired funds for several projects with the industry. He has published articles in academic journals such as Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, IISE Transactions, and Transportation Science, and co-edited a book entitled ‘Sustainable Supply Chains: A Research-based Textbook on Operations and Strategy’.