Triple bottom line (3BL) approaches to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) often involve trade-offs between their three dimensions (economic, environmental, and social), thus curtailing its application and leading to goal unalignment among stakeholders. Under some circumstances, however, synergic approaches (typically involving disruptive innovations) might allow simultaneous improvement in one or more dimensions without compromising the others. This paper analyzes one such case: the potential of properly designed additive manufacturing approaches in the automotive spare parts industry to simultaneously boost profits and reduce environmental impact. It is based on the systematic analysis of the real spare parts business of a mid-size automotive brand in Spain. Its results suggest that such synergic, self-reinforcing opportunities do indeed exist, and might even be further developed by strategically integrating sustainability constituents such as circularity.

Innovation supports the development of Sustainable Supply Chains (SSCs) through Sustainability-Oriented Innovation (SOI) practices. This study aims to validate and further develop, through its practical application, a baseline SOI practices framework, which can be used as a benchmark model. While applying and validating this framework, several new, conceptually distinctive SOI practices were identified that were not included in the proposed baseline model. This led the authors to propose expanding the initial baseline model with a new category of “transversal” SOI practices, so that the expanded model provides a more comprehensive view of the mechanisms that foster innovation at SSCs. These “transversal” SOI practices are highly contingent on the adopting company’s traits and strategy, thus suggesting that they might be a major conduit through which its strategy is reflected in its SSCM. Besides their transversal and contingent nature, another key trait of the identified SOI practices is their integrated, dynamic, time-dependent, feedback-loop-based interrelationship. These findings suggest the potential effectiveness, for processes such as sustainability innovation that involve substantial time lags, to reposition top management focus and performance evaluation “upstream” in the causal chain. This potentially promising approach involves shifting focus from results (particularly short-term results) to its causes (processes, methods), and systematically managing the ensuing feedback loops.

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