Designing and managing environmentally conscious products and global supply chains

到目前为止，一个广泛的共识已经形成，即人为排放对我们环境的稳定构成严重威胁，由此产生的变化将通过破坏食物和水供应、淹没沿海湿地、造成恶劣天气模式和物种灭绝来威胁我们的生态系统。在正在考虑的许多缓解和适应办法中，产品的设计、采购、生产和在全球市场上分销的过程发挥着核心作用。已经提出了若干市场机制，促使生产者将其产品和供应链的环境影响内部化。这种机制提供了明确和可衡量的环境目标，同时允许生产者灵活选择遵守杠杆和战略。 拟议的研究计划的目标是分析和评估因素，有助于成功或失败的市场为基础的机制，在诱导产品和供应链的预期环境变化。该方案以总量管制与交易和扩大生产者责任这两个机制为重点，旨在以目前对这些问题的研究为基础，扩大议程，探讨全球化和信息这两个主要因素对生产者和消费者激励措施的作用，并提供一个机制设计框架，在实现环境目标的同时为组织提供正确的激励措施。该研究计划还旨在为加拿大和不列颠哥伦比亚省正在进行的关于这些机制设计的辩论做出贡献。

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.