This paper explores sustainability in supply chains in Costa Rica through an overview of the industrial sector and identifies its most common characteristics. Moreover, relying on the carbon footprint indicator and using estimates of the carbon emissions from a supply chain network, mainly associated with transportation, arrives at the conclusion that they should be carefully examined to promote initiatives of sustainability and to reduce the carbon footprint in accordance to the government's intention to become carbon neutral by 2021. Throughout the research it was found that the old rail infrastructure from the central plateau to the ports is rather attractive to reduce carbon emissions. The paper also presents options to achieve sustainability and points out challenges that must be overcome denoting the deficient transportation infrastructure as the most critical. The aim of this work is to call attention to the need to undertake a plan for freight transportation suitable to reduce emissions and secure sustainability.

La aplicación del modelo propuesto a un caso de estudio de la configuración de una cadena de suministros, demostró su utilidad práctica y cómo las decisiones de la configuración impactan tanto los costos como el ambiente. Los principales resultados demuestran que es posible reducir las emisiones de la cadena de suministro admitiendo un aumento razonable en los costos.