Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipments (WEEEs) is currently considered to be one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, with an estimated growth rate going from 3% up to 5% per ...year. The recycling of Electric or electronic waste (E-waste) products could allow the diminishing use of virgin resources in manufacturing and, consequently, it could contribute in reducing the environmental pollution. Given that EU is trying, since the last two decades, to develop a circular economy based on the exploitation of resources recovered by wastes, a comprehensive framework supporting the decision-making process of multi-WEEE recycling centres will be analysed in this paper. An economic assessment will define the potential revenues coming from the recovery of 14 e-products (e.g. LCD notebooks, LED notebooks, CRT TVs, LCD TVs, LED TVs, CRT monitors, LCD monitors, LED monitors, cell phones, smart phones, PV panels, HDDs, SSDs and tablets) on the base of current and future disposed volumes in Europe. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis will be used to test the impact of some critical variables (e.g. price of recovered materials, input materials composition, degree of purity obtained by the recycling process, volumes generated, and percentage of collected waste) on specific economic indexes. A discussion of the economic assessment results shows the main challenges in the recycling sector and streamlines some concrete solutions.
This paper presents current academic and industrial frontiers on blockchain application in supply chain, logistics and transport management. We conduct a systematic review of the literature and find ...four main clusters in the co-citation analysis, namely Technology, Trust, Trade, and Traceability/Transparency. For each cluster, and based on the pool of articles included in it, we apply an inductive method of reasoning and discuss the emerging themes and applications of blockchains for supply chains, logistics and transport. We conclude by discussing the main themes for future research on blockchain technology and its application in industry and services.
In the last decades, green and sustainable supply chain management practices have been developed, trying to integrate environmental concerns into organisations by reducing unintended negative ...consequences on the environment of production and consumption processes. In parallel to this, the circular economy discourse has been propagated in the industrial ecology literature and practice. Circular economy pushes the frontiers of environmental sustainability by emphasising the idea of transforming products in such a way that there are workable relationships between ecological systems and economic growth. Therefore, circular economy is not just concerned with the reduction of the use of the environment as a sink for residuals but rather with the creation of self-sustaining production systems in which materials are used over and over again.
Through two case studies from different process industries (chemical and food), this paper compares the performances of traditional and circular production systems across a range of indicators. Direct, indirect and total lifecycle emissions, waste recovered, virgin resources use, as well as carbon maps (which provide a holistic visibility of the entire supply chain) are presented. The paper asserts that an integration of circular economy principles within sustainable supply chain management can provide clear advantages from an environmental point view. Emerging supply chain management challenges and market dynamics are also highlighted and discussed.
•Circular and linear supply chains are introduced.•Through two case studies, their environmental performances are assessed and compared.•A Hybrid LCA methodology is utilized for performing the assessment.•Managerial and policy implications are discussed.
The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0): technologies disruption on operations and supply chain management 1.1 Context During the last five years, journals in robotics, electronics, computer ...science and production engineering have devoted significant attention to Industry 4.0 and related subjects, including additive manufacturing/3D printing, intelligent manufacturing and big data (Lee et al., 2014; Xi et al., 2015; Pfeiffer et al., 2016; Mosterman and Zander, 2016; Chen and Zhang, 2015; Jia et al., 2016). A few prominent exceptions are represented by the recent attempts to shed lights on: the link between Industry 4.0 and lean manufacturing (Buer et al., 2018; Tortorella and Fettermann, 2018); the link between Internet of Things (IoT) and supply chain management (Ben-Daya et al., 2017); the impact of additive manufacturing on supply chain processes and performances (Liu et al., 2014; Oettmeier and Hofmann, 2016; Li et al., 2017); and the short-term supply chain scheduling in smart factories (Ivanov et al., 2016). Here, the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) refers to the “confluence of technologies ranging from a variety of digital technologies (e.g. 3D printing, IoT, advanced robotics) to new materials (e.g. bio or nano-based) to new processes (e.g. data driven production, Artificial Intelligence, synthetic biology)” (OECD, 2016). Whilst classical theories such as resource based view, institutional theory, chaos theory, systems theory, stakeholder theory, transaction economic cost theory, evolutionary theory to name a few may need reshaping, the issues of trust will become prominent in such a disruptive digital environment, driving major evolvement of technological singularity in the transformation process, where blockchain may play a central role with IoT and Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Carter and Koh, 2018).
In recent years, an increasing environmental awareness has favoured the emergence of the new green supply chain paradigm; thus, also in the supplier selection problem, green criteria were ...incorporated. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, a careful scrutiny of the papers appearing in international scientific journals in recent years on the greener supplier selection problem is provided, highlighting utilised methodologies and current issues; second, a verification of the penetration of environmental and green criteria for the supplier selection in corporate practice is performed, using a questionnaire survey targeting the top 100 manufacturing companies operating in South Yorkshire (UK) and two in-depth interviews at large MNE firms operating in complex industries. Results show that, while interest in the literature is growing, there is little empirical evidence of the transfer of these applications into the real world, highlighting a persistent dichotomy between theory and practice. The reasons for this dichotomy are also investigated.
Purpose - The aim of this paper is to conceptualise a structural model of natural resource based green supply chain management (GSCM), and its relationship, with an indication of cause and effect, to ...relevant performance measures and drivers.Design methodology approach - The literature, describing GSCM from a natural resource based view (NRBV), along with performance measures and institutional drivers, is critically evaluated and used to develop the model.Findings - Constructs are identified in terms of intra- and inter-organisational environmental practices, performance measures and institutional drivers. Causal relationships, within and between the constructs, are also proposed in the form of hypotheses.Research limitations implications - At this stage the model is purely conceptual and the causal relationships are only proposed. Empirical tests of the model and hypotheses are required.Practical implications - On empirical verification, this work can furnish managers with validated measurement scales to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in their GSCM implementation and determine how firms can successfully implement GSCM to promote sustainable industrial development.Originality value - GSCM from within the NRBV perspective, and incorporating performance measures and institutional drivers, has yet to be comprehensively synthesised in a coherent model. This conceptual work is the first step in that direction.
Purpose
– The paper aims to develop a benchmarking framework to address issues such as supply chain complexity and visibility, geographical differences and non-standardized data, ensuring that the ...entire supply chain environmental impact (in terms of carbon) and resource use for all tiers, including domestic and import flows, are evaluated. Benchmarking has become an important issue in supply chain management practice. However, challenges such as supply chain complexity and visibility, geographical differences and non-standardized data have limited the development of approaches for evaluating performances of product supply chains. This industry-level benchmarking approach ensures that individual firms can compare their carbon emissions against other similarly structured firms.
Design/methodology/approach
– Benchmarking has become an important issue in supply chain management practice. However, challenges such as supply chain complexity and visibility, geographical differences and non-standardized data have limited the development of approaches for evaluating performances of product supply chains. The paper aims to develop a benchmarking framework to address these issues, ensuring that the entire supply chain environmental impact (in terms of carbon) and resource use for all tiers, including domestic and import flows, are evaluated. This industry-level benchmarking approach ensures that individual firms can compare their carbon emissions against other similarly structured firms.
Findings
– Supply chain carbon maps are developed as a means of producing industry-level benchmarks to set a measure for the environmental sustainability of product supply chains. The industry-level benchmark provides the first step for firms to manage the environmental performance, identify and target high carbon emission hot-spots and for cross-sectorial benchmarking.
Originality/value
– The paper links the theoretical development of supply chain environmental system based on the Multi-Regional Input–Output model to the innovative development of supply chain carbon maps, such that an industry-level benchmarking framework is produced as a means of setting product supply chain carbon emissions benchmarks.
Solar energy is a form of renewable energy that can be used to combat climate change through an environmentally accepted energy supply policy with support from both private and public consumers. ...There are numerous factors contributing to the definition of the economic and environmental performance of solar energy investments, such as average annual irradiation, consumers' consumption, Feed in Tariff incentive system, energy portfolio, emissions produced by the photovoltaic system, rated power of the individual modules, disposable income of the investor, availability of surface for the installation of the photovoltaic panels and mission, that characterise the project (environmental maximisation, economic maximisation or self-sufficiency of the system during the first year). Given the particular geographical position of Italy, the economic profitability and environmental impact of such system were estimated, first on the provincial scale and then on the regional scale, to delineate the general characteristics that are not caused by a single scenario. The indicators used include the following: net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), discounted payback period (DPbP), discounted aggregate cost-benefit ratio (BCr) and reduction of emissions of carbon dioxide (ERcd). The ultimate objective of the paper is to define the number of photovoltaic (PV) systems necessary to reach the target of renewable energy production in the above settings. A general scenario appropriate to achieve this goal, as well as implementing the total wealth generated by this framework and the reduction of CO2 emissions resulting from the implementation of that plan, will be examined. The indicators used are total net present value per capita and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions per capita.
The Ecological Footprint evaluates the difference between the availability of renewable resources and the extent of human consumption of these resources. Over the past few decades, historical records ...have shown an accelerated decline in the availability of resources. Based on national footprint and biocapacity accounts, this analysis aims to advance the forecasting of the G20 countries' ecological footprints over a 30-year time frame. We employed a time series forecasting approach implemented in Python, which included-modular regression (Prophet) and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA & Auto-ARIMA) methods. We evaluated and combined the performance of these three methods. The results indicated that among the largest economies of the G20, only four countries are projected to have a positive ecological footprint balance by 2050. These countries share the common denominator of large land areas and a moderate population growth projection. However, the overall trend of the indicator suggests that it will continue to decline.
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