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

Abstract

With the environment concern increasing, corporations are facing new challenges on carbon management in supply chain network. In this paper, environmental consideration is introduced to traditional supply chain management, and the sustainable supply chain (SSC) is designed considering carbon footprint. We develop a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to get the optimal decisions on partner selection, technology selection, and transportation mode selection, as well as material procurement, product supply, and recovery mode. For validating the model, a beverage company in China is used. We also analyze the impact of supply chain uncertainties such as carbon emission price and recovery rate of returned products on the decision of SSC design.