Using Pareto Optimization to Support Supply Chain Network Design within Environmental Footprint Impact Assessment

Abstract

A product environmental footprint is a multi-criteria measure for environmental sustainability. Most of these environmental criteria are either synergies (non-trade-offs) or compromises (trade-offs) within environmental metrics. This forms a multi-objective problem of supply chain network design. The product environmental footprint is an aid or tool that enterprises may use to measure and improve the life cycle environmental performance of their products. In this research, a multi-criteria method, Pareto optimization, is used to design a supply chain network based on the results of a product environmental footprint. In Pareto optimization, two objectives are formulated: Environmental impact and cost. Using the results of this research, designers will be able to choose a material with a lower environmental impact and supply chain managers will be able to select suppliers with lower environmental impacts. A case study of industry practice is also analyzed. It shows an environmental footprint is useful for the supply chain design network.

Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design with Carbon Footprint Consideration: A Case Study in China

“…SSC network design is studied with the consideration of procurement, manufacturing, distribution, and recovery based on the LCA as design criteria in our paper. Secondly, it is different from existing paper like Kuo in which the operating cost and carbon emission are individually minimized [24]. In this paper, the operating cost and carbon emission are both simultaneously considered.…”

“…Constraint (23) shows the inventory variation of distribution center. Constraints (24) and (25) relate to the inventory and distribution capacity of distribution center. Constraint (26) ensures that if a distribution center is selected, this distribution center will be used in entire periods.…”

A Strategic Location Decision-Making Approach for Multi-Tier Supply Chain Sustainability

“…These issues lead to more studies towards multi-tier sustainable supply chain management involving several aspects such as managing Table 1 also shows that only two of the recently published studies on supply location decisions and network design consider environmental sustainability and none consider social sustainability. In addition to the studies in Table 1, other related studies [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] similarly show that few of them considered social sustainability. This is consistent with the results of the review article by Chen et al [26], which stated that few studies have explicitly used sustainability criteria in making facility location decisions, as well as the review article by Brandenburg et al [27], which stated that studies on quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management have neglected the social dimension.…”

Green Procurement Decisions with Carbon Leakage by Global Suppliers and Order Quantities under Different Carbon Tax

“…Ghani et al [4] provided optimized GHG reduction policy plans by focusing on tracing GHG emissions in supply chain of the residential, commercial, and industrial building construction industries. Kuo and Lee [25] investigated a bi-objective optimization problem with the Pareto frontier under the trade-offs between cost and carbon footprint. Urata et al [26] proposed a model for an Asian global supply chain network that balanced both the procurement/transportation cost and the material-based CO 2 emissions, and conducted a sensitivity analysis of the emissions cost with carbon trading, in which the cost is applied based on the amount of CO 2 emissions beyond the target reduction ratio for CO 2 emissions and is added to the total costs [26].…”