Sustainable operations: design and management of environmentally conscious products and production systems

人们越来越认识到，通过目标导向和基于市场的机制，为目标各方提供选择合规杠杆的灵活性，可以最好地管理产品在其生命周期中对环境的影响。最好的例子包括排放交易计划和延长生产者责任(EPR)。在美国，二氧化硫(SO2)许可证市场现在每年的交易额超过80亿美元；在欧盟，排放交易计划是实施《京都议定书》的基石，影响到25个国家的12,000多家生产商。此外，世界各国越来越多的行业，从电子产品到汽车，都发现自己有责任让自己的产品“闭合循环”，因为EPR计划要求它们负责消费者使用后的产品回收。随着设计和实施这类机制的经验的积累，各地的政策制定者都在探索以市场为基础的方案，以在各种领域实现环境可持续性的目标。然而，这种机制的适当设计需要反映出对管理选择和权衡的更好理解，这些选择和权衡往往与社会和环境目标一样严重地权衡利润最大化和决策的经济价值。这项研究计划的目标是研究基于市场的环境可持续计划下企业合规战略之间的相互作用，监管机构在设计此类计划时选择适当的杠杆，以及对环境绩效和公司盈利的整体影响。拟议的研究议程仅限于两种机制：针对二氧化硫、二氧化碳(CO2)和其他温室气体等污染物的总量管制与交易计划；以及针对汽车、电子设备和家用电器等耐用品的延长生产者责任计划。

It is increasingly being recognized that environmental impacts of products over their life cycle can best be managed through goal-oriented and market-based mechanisms that provide flexibility to the targeted parties in choosing compliance levers.  Excellent examples include emissions trading programs and extended producer responsibility (EPR).  In the US, markets for sulphur-dioxide (SO2) permits now account for more than $8 billion a year in trades; in the EU, the Emissions Trading Scheme is the cornerstone of the Kyoto Protocol implementation and affects more than 12,000 producers in 25 countries. Moreover, an increasing number of industries, from electronics to automobiles in countries around the world find themselves responsible for 'closing the loop' on their products, as EPR programs make them responsible for product take-backs post consumer use. As experience in designing and implementing such mechanisms accumulates, policy makers everywhere are exploring market based programs to achieve the goals of environmental sustainability in a variety of areas. Proper design of such mechanisms, however, needs to reflect a better understanding of managerial choices and trade-offs that often weigh profit maximization and economic value of decisions as heavily as social and environmental goals. The objective of this research program is to study the interactions among firm strategies for compliance under market based programs for environmental sustainability, regulators' choice of appropriate levers in design of such programs, and the overall impact on environmental performance as well as firm profitability.  The proposed research agenda is limited to two such mechanisms: cap-and-trade programs for pollutants such as SO2, Carbon-dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases; and, extended producer responsibility programs for durable goods such as automobiles, electronic equipment and domestic appliances.