Activity analysis based modeling of global supply chains for sustainability assessment
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Activity analysis based modeling of global supply chains for sustainability assessment Christian Thies1 · Karsten Kieckhäfer2 · Thomas S. Spengler1
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Assessing the sustainability of products is an intricate task that requires a thorough understanding of the underlying supply chains. Prominent challenges are the integration of the environmental, the economic, and the social dimension of sustainability as well as the consideration of spatial heterogeneity with regard to technology, environment, markets, and society. This paper proposes a novel modeling approach based on activity analysis to facilitate spatially differentiated sustainability assessments of global supply chains. The production and transportation activities in the supply chain and the exchanges between activities and their natural, economic, and social environments are formalized by means of activity vectors. Linking the activities and exchanges to specific locations allows for the calculation of regionalized sustainability indicators. The approach is used to analyze the environmental, economic, and social impacts of lithium-ion batteries. The comparison of alternative supply chain configurations with the spatially differentiated approach reveals that the assessment results differ significantly from those of the global average supply chain. These insights offer new opportunities to advance the design of sustainable supply chains. Keywords Sustainability assessment · Activity analysis · Spatial differentiation · Supply chain JEL classification M11 · Q57 · C67
* Christian Thies ch.thies@tu‑braunschweig.de 1
Institute of Automotive Management and Industrial Production, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Mühlenpfordtstraße 23, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
2
Chair of Production and Logistics Management, FernUniversität in Hagen, Universitätsstraße 41, 58097 Hagen, Germany
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1 Introduction Sustainability has become a topic that receives increasing attention of corporate decision-makers. Driven by customer requirements, competitive pressures, regulatory pressures, and internal risk management, companies seek to reduce their environmental footprints and to improve their social impacts, without compromising their economic profitability (O’Rourke 2014). For example, major companies from different industries and countries have recently committed to reduce their carbon footprint and to align their businesses with science-based targets to limit the worst impacts of climate change (Science Based Targets initiative 2019). Furthermore, managers recognize the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility to create a competitive advantage and to secure the long-term success of their business (Porter and Kramer 2006). To achieve improvements in sustainability, an effective management of the supply chain is important (Goldstein and Newell 2019). Due to increased outsourcing and globalization, the supply chains of many modern products have complex structures, comprising multipl
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