Measuring Sustainability Performance in Supply Chains

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Canadian corporations are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities and challenges associated with the economic, environmental, and social impacts of their activities. A growing number of corporations have established sustainability policies, plans, and programs to respond to these issues. Many corporations have made progress in improving the sustainability performance of their internal operations. However, there is an emerging understanding that corporate sustainability issues extend beyond the boundaries of any one organization. Improving overall sustainability performance requires the consideration of a corporation's supply chain. However, many corporations have struggled to develop, implement, and improve measurement systems that deliver reliable, synthesized information on the sustainability performance of their supply chain. This research program is intended to address those issues. The long-term objective of this research is to develop methodological foundations for measuring corporate sustainability performance in supply chains. Four interrelated short-term objectives support the long-term objective: (1) develop a framework to assess the sustainability context of a supply chain, (2) develop a framework for selecting sustainable supply chain partners, (3) develop a framework for measuring sustainability performance in forward supply chains, and (4) develop a framework for measuring sustainability performance in reverse supply chains. Each framework will be created through a structured process of (1) framework development, (2) expert consultation, (3) framework refinement, and (4) validation through case studies. Objective 1 will focus on the development of a framework to address the identification of sustainability priorities, impacts, vulnerabilities, stakeholders, and regulatory requirements relevant to a corporation's supply chain. Objective 2 will focus on the development of a framework consisting of several interrelated components, including criteria for identifying critical supply chain partners, a rapid partner sustainability assessment tool, and guidelines for integrating the assessment results with existing business infrastructure. Objective 3 will provide a customizable process for designing, implementing, and updating sustainability indicators and indices for forward supply chains. This will entail developing indicator selection criteria and schemes for normalization, weighting, and aggregation to develop a composite index. A suite of standardized indicators, including detailed protocols guiding their preparation, will be developed to provide a reference point for measurement initiatives. Objective 4 will focus on adapting the outputs of Objectives 1, 2, and 3 for measuring performance in reverse supply chains. This will include the development of tools to assess options in end-of-life product management. Students will be involved throughout the entire research program. The research will address several key gaps in the academic literature. In particular, the need to further emphasize the social aspects of sustainability will be addressed in the development of the frameworks for assessing sustainability context, selecting supply chain partners, and measuring sustainability performance in forward and reverse supply chains. The social dimension of sustainability performance is consistently underrepresented in the existing literature. The research outputs will provide Canadian corporations with a systematic way to measure sustainability performance in their supply chains. This will support more informed decision-making related to corporate sustainability.