Designing and managing environmentally conscious products and global supply chains

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

A broad consensus has by now taken hold that anthropogenic emissions pose serious threat to the stability of our environment, and that the resulting changes will threaten our ecosystem by disrupting food and water supplies, submerging coastal wetlands, causing severe weather patterns and species extinction. Among the many approaches to mitigation and adaptation being considered, the processes for designing, sourcing, producing and distributing products in global markets play a central role. Several market-based mechanisms have been proposed that induce producers to internalize the environmental impact of their products and supply chains. Such mechanisms provide clear and measurable environmental goals, while allowing producers the flexibility to choose compliance levers and strategies. The objective of the proposed research program is to analyze and evaluate factors that contribute to success or failure of market-based mechanisms in inducing desired environmental changes in products and supply chains. Focusing on two such mechanisms, cap and trade and EPR, the program aims to build on ongoing research on these issues, and broaden the agenda to explore the role played by two major factors -- globalization and information - on producer and consumer incentives, and provide a framework for mechanism design that provides correct incentives to organizations while achieving environmental goals. The research program also aims to contribute to the on-going debates in Canada, and within British Columbia, on design of these mechanisms.