Supply chain

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the management of supply chains are closely interwoven. To achieve the 17 SDGs, we must examine every aspect of society and business, including how goods are produced, transported, and consumed. In this context, supply chain operations have a significant role to play in both contributing to and solving many of the challenges encapsulated within the SDGs.

The supply chain directly affects SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 12, Responsible Consumption and Production. The way supply chains are managed can significantly influence the quality of jobs, especially in developing nations where many production activities are outsourced. Employers should ensure decent working conditions, fair wages, and the prohibition of child or forced labor. On the production front, organizations should commit to resource-efficient and cleaner production methods, minimizing environmental impact, reducing waste, and ensuring sustainable sourcing practices.

Supply chains also play a key role in tackling climate change (SDG 13). Transitioning towards low-carbon supply chains, improving energy efficiency, and investing in renewable energy technologies can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Moreover, supply chains can impact SDG 2, Zero Hunger, and SDG 3, Good Health and Well-being, depending on their operation in the food and pharmaceutical sectors. Ensuring the safe, efficient, and equitable distribution of food and medical products can help eradicate hunger and ensure health and well-being.

From a gender equality perspective (SDG 5), businesses can strive for equal representation in all parts of their supply chain, ensuring women have the same employment opportunities as men. Meanwhile, SDG 16, Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, also finds a place in supply chain operations. Here, businesses must act against corruption, bribery, and other unethical practices, promoting transparency and accountability in all their transactions.

In essence, sustainable and responsible supply chain management is an effective approach for businesses to contribute substantially to the SDGs. By aligning their strategies with these goals, businesses can bring about positive change, enhance their brand reputation, and gain a competitive edge, all while contributing to a more sustainable and equitable world.

Sustainable innovation is a key-objective for our Group that has recently integrated the principles of sustainable development into all stages of a product's life cycle, from its design to consumer use. The following ambitious commitment: 100% of its products should bring an environmental (or social benefit) by 2020, will be reached, in particular, by integrating and giving a constant privilege to renewable raw materials -or ingredients-that originate from sustainable resources that fully comply with the green chemistry rules.

Dealing with current and future global challenges, corporate social responsibility has become a key element for sustainable and responsible companies. Roquette, a family-owned group, leader in plant-based ingredients for Food, Nutrition and Health markets, has implemented a sustainable development approach applicable to all its worldwide activities. This “sustainable journey” is based on 4 pillars: sourcing, innovating, biorefining and acting.

The use of biomass for energy production is one way to ensure energy security and address the environmental issues related to the use of fossil fuels in developing countries. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need electric power and thermal energy for their activities. In Burkina Faso, this type of thermal energy is generally produced by SMEs from firewood. However, cashew companies produce a large amount of waste (shell, press cake, nut shell liquid) which can be converted into fuel. Separating the cashew nut from the shell requires two energy-intensive steps: roasting and drying.

Sustainable Materials and Technologies, Volume 17, September 2018, e00074

This article observes how the criticality of raw materials is perceived and handled within Materials Science, contributing to goals 9 and 12
Elsevier, Sustainable Materials and Technologies, Volume 16, July 2018
This paper contributes to the understanding of metal demand development over time by illustrating the impacts of different aspects of technological change using historical data. We provide a direct, quantitative comparison of relative change in global primary production for 30 metals over 21 years (1993–2013), capturing the range and variation of demand development for different metals within this period. The aspects of technological change contributing to this variation are investigated in more depth for nine metals.
As an extension of a previous work (Chen and Han, 2015a), this study explored the arable land use of the world economy from source of exploitation to sink of final consumption via the global supply chain, by means of embodiment accounting that includes the indirect feedbacks associated with both intermediate and primary inputs. In magnitude, the global transfer of arable land use is estimated to be around 40% of the total direct exploitation. The connections as well as imbalances of major economies in intermediate and final trades of arable land use are discussed.
Evaluations of food, energy and water (FEW) linkages are rapidly emerging in contemporary nexus studies. This paper demonstrates, from a food consumption perspective, the potential of life cycle thinking in understanding the complex and often “hidden” linkages between FEW systems. Our study evaluates the upstream virtual water and embodied energy in food consumption in the Tamar catchment, South West England, distinguishing between domestic production and imports origin.

Successful Food-energy-water (FEW) nexus projects will be more likely to succeed if a transdisciplinary approach is used. Ecological modernization (ecological technology) policies and practices, and sustainable supply chains influence the FEW nexus from a commerce and industry perspective. Taking these perspectives and considering their intertwined linkages is important for advancing research and adoption of FEW nexus efforts. This paper provides an overview of these perspectives and interlinkages.

Elsevier, Sustainable Materials and Technologies, Volume 15, April 2018
According to the reports on critical raw materials for the EU, a raw material is considered critical if it has a high economic importance to the EU combined with high supply risk. Supply risk is considered to arise from a combination of several factors, namely a high concentration of production in countries with poor governance, limited material substitutability, and poor end-of-life recycling rates. A number of industry activities, policy initiatives and research projects have recently been initiated in Europe with the aim to secure an adequate supply of raw materials.

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