The application of the triple bottom line approach to sustainability assessment: The case study of the UK automotive supply chain

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to assess the level of sustainability of the UK automotive supply chain considering simultaneously the three dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) representing the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach.Design/methodology/approach: The assessment of the automotive SC’ sustainability is based on the framework proposed by Salvado, Azevedo, Matias and Ferreira (2011) and uses the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) method to aggregate economic, environmental and social indicators into a unique index. A case study on the UK automotive industry is used and the data do perform this study is collected from the sustainability reports of the UK’ automotive companies.Findings and Originality/value: The proposed framework represents an important benchmarking tool, offering managers the possibility for assessing the sustainability behaviour of its supply chain and compare it with other supply chains. Once identified the dimension of sustainability where the company or the supply chain is worst performer managers can work closer to their supply chain’ partners in order to improve the performance of those dimension of sustainability.Research limitations/implications: One limitation of the suggested approach is related to the ambiguity of the sustainability’ indicators selection and the definition of weights for each sustainability dimension.Practical implications: The assessment of the SC sustainability by using the suggested framework to compute a SC sustainability index offers managers an opportunity for assessing the level of sustainability of each individual company and the corresponding SC in a very easy way. It also represents an opportunity for improving company performance. In this way managers can use the information on the sustainability index to help adjust their company's behaviour and improve their economic, social and environmental performance.Originality/value: The proposed framework represents a contribution in the area of index construction and a valuable component of organizational management systems and monitoring programs.

Introducing a product sustainability budget at an automotive company—one option to increase the use of LCSA results in decision-making processes

“…This positive image can positively influence the revenue of a companyfor the automotive industry, 5.7% of revenues can be attributed to the sustainability image (Biesalski & Company, 2014). The existing approaches that try to assess the impacts on the three dimensions of sustainability in the automotive industry target the company level (Jasiński et al, 2016;Azevedo & Barros, 2017;Fritz et al, 2018). The approach by Azevedo & Barros (2017) developed a tool that took data for assessing the impacts on the triple bottom line for UK based automotive manufacturers.…”

“…The existing approaches that try to assess the impacts on the three dimensions of sustainability in the automotive industry target the company level (Jasiński et al, 2016;Azevedo & Barros, 2017;Fritz et al, 2018). The approach by Azevedo & Barros (2017) developed a tool that took data for assessing the impacts on the triple bottom line for UK based automotive manufacturers. Jasiński et al (2016) selected a set of sustainability assessment criteria from the literature and in combination with the results of 24 interviews with automotive experts they suggested 26 midpoint and 9 end-point environmental, resource, social and economic impact categories.…”

Economic and environmental packaging sustainability: A case study

“…Nevertheless, these studies have shown that companies use a wide range of KPI's to evaluate each one of the sustainability pillars, generating a long list of indicators that needs to be managed. This has led some authors to develop methodologies based on aggregating all the indicators into a unique index (Azevedo & Barros, 2017;Erol, Sencer & Sari, 2011;Pérez, Guerrero, González, Pérez & Caballero, 2013). For example, Azevedo and Barros (2017) have designed a composite index giving a different weight to each one of the sustainability dimensions.…”

“…This has led some authors to develop methodologies based on aggregating all the indicators into a unique index (Azevedo & Barros, 2017;Erol, Sencer & Sari, 2011;Pérez, Guerrero, González, Pérez & Caballero, 2013). For example, Azevedo and Barros (2017) have designed a composite index giving a different weight to each one of the sustainability dimensions. However, this kind of composite indicators might not be intuitive to practitioners due to their academic perspective.…”

Assessing the Cost Impact of Multiple Transportation Modes to Enhance Sustainability in an Integrated, Two Stage, Automotive Supply Chain

“…The paper attempts to develop a theoretical framework explaining the complex interactions of variables in the dynamic environment of sustainable supply chain management by using the Total Interpretive Structural Modeling technique. The sustainability of the UK automotive supply chain is assessed by Azevedo and Barros [6]. The study is based on a proposed sustainability index for the automotive industry from the literature.…”