Using life cycle sustainability assessment to trade off sourcing strategies for humanitarian relief items

Kempen, Elisah Antonia van; Spiliotopoulou, Eirini; Stojanovski, Goran; Leeuw, Sander de

doi:10.1007/s11367-016-1245-z

Cited by 38 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(51 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…van Kempen et al [89] To contribute to the development of the field by conducting a life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA) of sourcing scenarios for a core relief item in a humanitarian supply chain considering the ReCiPe method and UNEP/ SETAC guideline…”

Section: Sustainability Principles and Corporate Sustainability Assesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To overcome this challenge, different tools for monitoring impacts on sustainability like LCA (for example, [85,88]) or footprints methodologies (for instance, [101]) have been developed. In an international context, two of the most accepted methodologies are the Organizational Environmental Footprint from the European Commission, which measures the environmental impacts, and the UNEP/SETAC methodology, which measures social impacts [88,89].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An Assessment Tool to Integrate Sustainability Principles into the Global Supply Chain

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The integration of sustainability principles into the assessment of companies along the supply chains is a growing research area. However, there is an absence of a generally accepted method to evaluate corporate sustainability performance (CSP), and the models and frameworks proposed by the literature present various important challenges to be addressed. A systematic literature review on the supply chain at the corporate level has been conducted, analyzing the main strengths and gaps in the sustainability assessment literature. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the development of this field by proposing an assessment framework a leading company can adopt to expand sustainability principles to the rest of the members of the supply chain. This proposal is based on best practices and integrates and shares efforts with key initiatives (for instance, the Organizational Environmental Footprint from the European Commission and United Nations Environment Programme and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry UNEP/SETAC); moreover, it overcomes important limitations of the current sustainability tools in a supply chain context consistent with the circular economy, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), planetary boundaries, and social foundation requirements. The results obtained create, on the one hand, new opportunities for academics; and, on the other hand, in further research, the use of this framework could be a means of actively engaging companies in their supply chains and of achieving the implementation of practical and comprehensive CSP assessment.

show abstract

Section: Sustainability Principles and Corporate Sustainability Assesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment Tool to Integrate Sustainability Principles into the Global Supply Chain

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They identified and categorized a list of barriers on the path of greening relief operations and stressed the dire need for studies about green HL. Van Kempen, Spiliotopoulou, Stojanovski, and De Leeuw () used life cycle sustainability analysis to compare procurement scenarios of relief items. The results showed that local sourcing is preferred to international sourcing in terms of environmental sustainability performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the role of regional hubs in the environmental sustainability of humanitarian supply chains

Zarei

Carrasco‐Gallego

Ronchi

2019

Sustainable Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In spite of strong commitment of humanitarian and development communities with the protection of our planet, expressed through the Sustainable Development Goals in the Agenda 2030, environmental sustainability still remains an overlooked aspect in humanitarian supply chains (HSCs). Using a collaborative mixed‐methods research with an international humanitarian organization, this paper sheds light on the causes of unsustainable operations in HSCs and investigates the impact of regional hubs on the environmental sustainability. First, an in‐depth focus group was conducted involving the organization's employees and the research team to identify the main causes contributing to unsustainable HSC in the organization. Five categories of causes were identified, namely, supply chain configuration (SCC), transportation, donors, material and waste, and humanitarian specificities. Then, based on respondents' prioritization, SCC was selected as the most important category. Carbon footprinting for three SCC scenarios was conducted: the current SCC and two conceptual SCC with two hubs in East and West Africa with different replenishment windows. The results reveal that the SCCs with hubs outperform the current SCC in terms of carbon footprint. Finally, the challenges of implementing the conceptual SCCs and possible solutions to address them were discussed through follow‐up individual interviews.

show abstract

“…Similarly, the findings of Piotrowicz (2018) supported implementation of local procurement in middle-income urbanized humanitarian settings, where infrastructures and operational markets exist. The results of Van Kempen et al (2017), as mentioned above, also advocated local sourcing in humanitarian context and showed its favorability in terms of environmental and social impact.…”

Section: Procurement Transportation and Inventory Managementmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Van Kempen et al (2017) considered all aspects of sustainability in humanitarian procurement. They conducted life cycle sustainability assessment to compare different humanitarian procurement strategies in terms of sustainability.…”

Section: Procurement Transportation and Inventory Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convening green to humanitarian logistics scene: a collaborative research approach for embedding environmental sustainability in humanitarian logistics

Zarei¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humanitarian supply chains are more expanded and global than ever before. Humanitarian organizations, alongside their development counterparts, work around the clock to satisfy the needs of beneficiaries, whether it is an armed conflict in the Middle East, a refugee crisis in Europe, or an ongoing drought in Africa. Meeting the ever-growing humanitarian needs entails intense logistics operations from procurement, to transportation, warehousing, last-mile distribution, and reverse logistics. These operations contribute to considerable environmental impact. However, environmental sustainability has been overlooked in humanitarian supply chain research hitherto. The objective of this thesis is integrating humanitarian supply chain management with green supply chain management, two streams within the supply chain management literature which have been growing in isolation from one another.The thesis builds upon the contingency theory and proposes a theoretical underpinning to distinguish the peculiarities of humanitarian environment and investigate how such peculiarities impact on the adoption, customization, and development of green practices. An action research methodology was used in collaboration with an international humanitarian organization and two and a half cycles of collaboration were conducted to integrate environmental sustainability into their supply chains.The research reveals four key findings. First, it proposes a greening framework that frames the extant green practices in a suitable form for humanitarian organizations. Second, it unearths the barriers and enablers of greening humanitarian supply chains vis-à-vis intra-organizational management, organizational functions such as procurement, funding environment, as well as other stakeholders such as suppliers, other humanitarian organizations, and country offices. Third, it explores the mechanisms through which humanitarian organizations can deal with or benefit from the identified barriers and enablers viz. i) improving the visibility of headquarters over delegations through increased presence of staff and employing information and communication technologies to track products during lastmile distribution, ii) developing instructions to minimize scavenging during reverse logistics and disposal, iii) promoting cooperation among different implementing partners at each country, and iv) raising flexible funding and donors' awareness about sustainability, inter alia. Fourth, a carbon footprinting conducted within the action research showed that humanitarian supply chain designs with hubs replenished periodically outperforms the design with perpetual replenishment through direct shipments from suppliers to country offices in terms of global warming potential.Moreover, the research offers strong practical contributions by implementing action steps for greening humanitarian supply chains and investigating the success or failure of each step. It also makes methodological contributions to action research by identifying the challenges and opportunities for conduc...

show abstract

Using life cycle sustainability assessment to trade off sourcing strategies for humanitarian relief items

Cited by 38 publications

References 46 publications

An Assessment Tool to Integrate Sustainability Principles into the Global Supply Chain

An Assessment Tool to Integrate Sustainability Principles into the Global Supply Chain

On the role of regional hubs in the environmental sustainability of humanitarian supply chains

Convening green to humanitarian logistics scene: a collaborative research approach for embedding environmental sustainability in humanitarian logistics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About