Developing a Framework for Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Abstract

It has been a while since supply chain management (SCM) has shifted its focus from production efficiency to sustainability related issues. Implementing this strategic shift demands all supply chain members, all processes, and generally all of the elements to be involved in helping the chain move faster and further toward sustainability. This has necessitated the strong relationship between supply chain and the three sustainability pillars: environment, economy, and society. Having considered this essentiality, this paper, describes the supply chain, sustainable development and discusses their existing definitions in the literature. The relationship between supply chain and sustainability is then discussed and a framework for sustainable supply chain is proposed based on the previous suggested structures for supply chain and sustainable development.