Integrated chain management in Germany – identifying schools of thought based on a literature review

The concept of integrated chain management has received much attention in German management literature. This can be seen in the increasing output of both papers and books on the topic as well as in the number of Ph.D. and habilitation (post-Ph.D.) theses that have contributed to the concept. Integrated chain management can be comprehended as supply chain management that takes environmental and social issues into account.This paper is designed to provide an overview of the concept of integrated chain management. This is done by means of a literature review, where related book publications with a focus on similar Ph.D. and habilitation theses have systematically been collected and analyzed. On the basis of this content analysis, major historical lines of development can be observed. Three schools are identified: the material and information flow school, the strategy and cooperation school and the regional industrial network school. The major research captured in these schools is described.     

Bio-energy supply chains and stakeholders

What are the management challenges and opportunities of bio-energy chains for both running their business efficiently and effectively and fostering the relationships with most relevant external stakeholders? This question is approached by systematically reviewing papers at the interface of bio-energy and supply chain or logistics issues. The review conducted as content analysis is based on an analytic framework that conceives bio-energy chains between challenges and benefits of bio-energy production with simultaneous internal supply chain management and external stakeholder management needs. Smartly designed and operated bio-energy projects hold promising potentials of contributing to sustainable development by both mitigating climate change and strengthening adaptation capabilities. Our analysis distils specific strategies and success factors for tapping this potential on two levels: On a supply chain level, individually adapted and designed supply chain systems relying on trustful information exchange, cooperation and relational governance safeguard profitability while holding adverse ecological and social impacts of operation down; they allow, for instance, minimising costs and emissions, implementing new technologies, and coping with environmental uncertainties such as crop failures and volatile prices. On a stakeholder level, governments as key actors for designing the future legal framework of bio-energy are primary targets for lobbying activities of bio-energy representatives. Respective arguments may focus on economic development and job generation. By minimising its adverse impacts on society and eco-systems and by communicating these efforts credibly, bio-energy warrants its superiority over fossil energy systems. Involving NGOs and residents in early stages of bio-energy projects via transparent two-way communication considerably increase societal acceptance.     

A critical assessment of motives for product recovery: the case of engine remanufacturing

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in product take-back, product recovery and the (re-)distribution of these products. The automotive sector, in particular, has a strong history of product recovery operations, such as remanufacturing. Alongside this development, an academic interest in the management of re-use, recycling or remanufacturing has evolved and developed into the field of closed-loop supply chain management. Closed-loop supply chain management, however, is only characterised by a short research history, the earliest contributions can be found on reverse logistics and were published in the early 1990s. Due to the novelty of the field there are still a large number of unsolved research problems. One of these is the question for the rationale behind product recovery operations. This research is based on in-depth case studies within the remanufacturing facilities of a major European Vehicle Manufacturer. The article examines whether the ‘classic’ motives for product recovery are applicable to automotive remanufacturing. It concludes with a summary of the contributions this research makes to theory, to industry and to future research in the field.     

1996—2017年雨洪管理研究发展态势分析——基于文献计量方法

为了解雨洪管理领域最新的研究发展态势,本文采用文献计量方法,以Web of Science（WOS）中的核心合集数据库为准,分析了1996-2017年国内外雨洪管理领域的研究情况,识别国内外主要的研究领域、主要研究机构及人员,并对领域内的关键词及国家间合作情况进行了简要分析,在此基础上总结近年来国际雨洪管理领域的研究态势,主要结论为：整体上近年来雨洪管理领域研究规模和学术影响力呈良好发展态势;大多数文献类型为学术论文;语言大多集中在英语;论文主要集中在气象学、环境科学、地理学、计算机科学等领域;从国家研究实力来看,美国在该领域占有绝对的优势;高被引论文主要发表在高质量的综合类期刊上,发文期刊仍以水文学、环境类期刊为主;对于关键词的分析表明目前该领域的研究仍重点集中在城市化、SWMM、径流、温度、水文学等.在当今城市化问题仍然突出的情况下,雨洪管理领域仍有较大的发展空间,尤其对于模型方法和气候变化研究有待突破与创新.     

Creating integrated business and environmental value within the context of China’s circular economy and ecological modernization

This paper investigates the challenges and opportunities of how firms and organizations can and will be able to strike a better balance between economic growth and environmental stewardship in the context of China’s emerging ‘circular economy’ policy paradigm and based on ecological modernization theoretic approaches.Based on three company case studies in the information technology and electronic industries in China, we identify and demonstrate how a blended business and environmental value can be created from adopting a sustainable supply chain management approach. The adoption of a sustainable supply chain management approach is rapidly becoming a key business challenge and opportunity in China and other large emerging economies around the world, where our greatest environmental management challenges currently reside and will continue to exist for many years to come. The value creation framework proposed in research focuses on evaluating three case study companies who appear in various stages of an electronic industry supply chain. Value creation within a supply chain can provide the impetus for organizations to adopt circular economy, sustainable supply chain practices, for competitive reasons.In addition, we describe how a value proposition can be evaluated at two levels of analysis, a more specific micro-level and a more general meso-level of analysis. The four major business value dimensions include cost reduction, revenue generation, resiliency, and legitimacy and image.The initial findings are that a variety of opportunities exist for electronic firms in emerging and developing countries, while results from this study provide an important scholarly foundation to develop and refine sustainable supply chain management practices in emerging and developing economies.     

Sustainability and supply chain management – An introduction to the special issue

This paper introduces the special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production on “Sustainability and Supply Chain Management”. This special issue mirrors the increasing relevance of this topic for both practitioners in companies, and academics. The purpose of this special issue is to serve as a catalyst to this important topic. Environmental and social problems and challenges do not stop at the gates of single companies, but have to be considered along the supply chains as the entities across which related material and information flows are organized. The aims of the paper are to introduce current research topics and provide an overview of the single papers. The papers cover supply chain strength of regions and regional activities as well as actions taken by small- and medium-sized manufacturing and public organizations. The papers in this issue also take a look at performance indicators and closed-loop supply chain aspects. Amongst these topics, four papers incorporate social aspects, which have been relatively and significantly less researched than environmental issues.     

欧美绿色供应链发展经验及启示

随着工业化、城市化的飞速发展,我国经济社会面临的资源环境瓶颈约束日益突出,实现经济发展和环境保护的同步推进是当前工作的重要内容,环境保护将扮演更为重要的角色。实施绿色供应链管理有利于改善高能耗高污染问题,提高企业生产效率,增强核心竞争力,促进企业和社会的可持续发展。欧盟和美国在推行绿色供应链管理方面成果显著,汲取其先进的政策和实践经验,对中国推进绿色供应链具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Linking supply chain strength to sustainable development: a country-level analysis

Several global corporations have been severely criticized by different lobbying groups for the impact of their operations on the natural environment and on the local communities. Because corporate operations cannot be studied in isolation but rather as a part of a large network often referred to as a supply chain, this paper investigates the potential link between supply chain characteristics and sustainable development at the country level. In particular, the linkage between supply chain strength, generally defined as the number and quality of the suppliers and customers in a country, and the three dimensions of sustainable development namely environmental performance, corporate environmental practices, and social sustainability is assessed. Using archival data from The Global Competitiveness Report (2004–2005) and the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index, a statistical assessment of the linkage was conducted. The results indicate that supply chain strength is positively linked to all three dimensions of sustainable development.     

硒汞相互作用及机理研究进展

硒汞相互作用研究在过去近半个世纪以来一直都是汞(硒)环境化学和毒理学及相关学科研究的重要领域之一,尤其在近10年内,对该领域的研究和认识取得了重要突破, 国际上几乎每年都会出现与之相关的综述或评论。相比之下,国内期刊报道与之相关的综述文献并不多见。本文对这一领域的研究进展进行了尽可能详尽的系统介绍,并就重要问题阐述了相关观点并提出建议。内容上涵盖了"自然条件环境下硒汞相互作用及机理(包括水生生态系统和陆地生态系统)"、"哺乳动物(及人体)的硒汞相互作用及机理",以及"汞污染风险的新评估模式及相关建议"等三大部分。希望能对国内感兴趣的相关科研人员和环境管理工作者了解该领域的发展和动态起到一定的帮助。     

The Automobile Industry & Sustainability

This paper summarises the contributions made to the special issue on The automobile Industry & Sustainability. Taking a life-cycle perspective, the contributions are allocated into the automotive life-cycle phases of design, manufacture (and supply chain management), use, and disposal or ‘end of life vehicle’ management. The contributions are also set into the broader context of research into the global automotive industry, and the economic, social and environmental pressures confronting the industry. In doing so, this introductory paper provides a brief assessment of the ways in which the papers in the special issue have furthered our understanding of the difficulty in achieving a sustainable automotive industry, and some of the measures that might be taken as progress towards that difficult goal.     

Influences, practices and opportunities for environmental supply chain management in Nova Scotia SMEs

Executives are increasingly paying attention to the importance of supply chain management [Lambert DM, Cooper MC. Issues in supply chain management. Industrial Marketing Management 2000;29(1):65–83; Hagelaar GJLF, van der Vorst JGAJ. Environmental supply chain management: using life cycle assessment to structure supply chains. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review 2002;4:399–412]. The management of the supply chain can be a central aspect of a company's competitive advantage [Preuss L. Rhetoric and reality of corporate greening: a view from the supply chain management function. Business Strategy and the Environment 2005;14:123–139]. SCM also offers considerable opportunities to reduce a company's environmental impact. The supply chains of three small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Burnside Industrial Park in Nova Scotia, Canada were investigated to explore the opportunities to improve environmental performance of SMEs linked in supply chains. This study confirmed that time and, to a lesser degree, financial resources to address solid waste and energy issues are the greatest limiting factors. Small suppliers, and even to a certain degree medium-sized enterprises, have difficulties in allocating resources to initiatives that are not viewed as directly related to their core function, namely manufacturing the product or providing the service. This study clearly demonstrated that opportunities exist to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste. Although, the benefits that would be gained from the implementation of any of the individual actions in the supply chains explored in this study are individually small, the cumulative benefits that could be achieved among supply chains and within industrial parks are substantial, given the number of small- and medium-sized enterprises.     

Productive science–policy interactions for sustainable coastal management: Conclusions from the Wadden Sea area

In this paper we synthesise the findings from the papers in this special issue on Organising productive science-policy interactions for sustainable coastal management. Lessons from the Wadden Sea. We first briefly discuss some relevant theoretical debates, and then present our main insights and lessons from the empirical evidence reported in the papers. We conclude the paper with suggestions for further research.     

生态足迹理论在能源消费评价中的缺陷与改进探讨

生态足迹从生物生产力的角度定量测度人类消费活动对生态环境的综合性影响,是目前应用范围最广、关注程度最高的可持续发展评价方法,具有简明易懂、便于操作、易与其他指标结合等优点。论文在总结国内外主要研究成果与进展的基础上,针对现有评价结果较为悲观、难以真实反映人类消费对生态环境影响等问题,系统归纳和分析了生态足迹理论在能源消费评价中的5项缺陷:①参数选取面临两难;②度量标准存在矛盾;③互斥假设有违事实;④研究内容涵盖不全;⑤评价结果部分失真。据此提出了有针对性的改进建议,并认为前三项缺陷必须尽快修正,后两项缺陷需要逐步克服。还应通过学科交叉引入更多经济社会指标进行综合判断,以促进区域可持续发展评价这一系统性工程的不断完善。     

Environmental supply chain management in tourism: The case of large tour operators

Extensive tourism developments and signals of the negative effects on destinations have put sustainability at the core of the business agenda. However, the fragmented structure of the tourism sector remains a key challenge for achieving consensus and developing coherent sustainable tourism strategies. Although supply chain strategies seem logically suitable for the interconnected nature of the tourism industry, there is limited discussion in tourism research about their adoption. In order to advance the knowledge of how sustainable tourism can become more of common practice, this article explores the adoption of environmental supply chain management (ESCM) by eight large tour operators. The results of the investigations show that in the absence of regulatory pressures and cost saving benefits, the adoption of ESCM is triggered by public pressures and its implementation is limited by organizational factors and strategic myopia.     

An inter-sectoral comparison of green supply chain management in China: Drivers and practices

The issue of green supply chain management (GSCM) has received increased attention in recent years among manufacturing practice and research. Yet, the corporate and environmental manufacturing issues in developing countries have not been as well investigated. This paper compares drivers and practices of GSCM in one developing country, China, focusing on three typical sectors, the automobile industry, the thermal power plants and the electronic/electrical industry. We sought to determine where the differences occur and which industries are further along. This study indicates that Chinese companies in different industries have differing drivers and practices. We tend to confirm that globalization and China's entry into the world trade organization have helped promote GSCM practices in manufacturing enterprises.     

高校水管理方法研究述评

创建节水型校园,既是降低办学成本的要求,也是培养学生节水意识、节水习惯的重要途径,同时也符合可持续发展的思想。首先阐述了加强高校用水管理的必要性;其次,综述了国内外各类水系统管理的研究现状;然后,从供水、用水和排水三个方面分析了高校水系统管理研究的现状,指出了目前高校水系统管理的研究内容单一,整体研究缺乏等不足之处,最后提出了未来高校中水回用管理,雨水资源化管理,分质供水管理,水系统监管平台的建立等研究热点。     

Critical perspectives of sustainable development research and practice

Sustainable development has been intensely debated for more than twenty years, but real progress of our societies to become more sustainable is very slow. Therefore this special issue provides a forum for critical perspectives of Sustainable Development Research and Practice. The papers are grouped into three clusters: a. Sustainability Science, b. Economic Problems and c. Corporate Contributions to Sustainable Development.Although a single special issue cannot address the entire array of issues pertaining to progress of sustainability related research, the selected papers highlight special aspects of sustainability research either due to their theoretical contributions or because they report on valuable empirical evidence. The main goal of sustainability research should be to contribute to our understanding of sustainability problems and to develop and help to implement solutions to solve them. This can be described as the relevance of sustainability research. A precondition to gain relevance is the rigor of sustainability science: it has to be based on solid scientific principles and methods. Additionally it has to be regarded that Sustainable Development is dynamic and that it has both normative and practical aspects. It is concluded that sustainability science and practice should be based upon these four central aspects: rigor, relevance, normative aspects and dynamic     

ISO 14001 in environmental supply chain practices

This paper focuses on the role of ISO 14001 in environmental supply management practices in Swedish companies. It discusses the existing and potential role of ISO 14001 for three key operational tasks of environmental supply chain management: to communicate the requirements to the supplier, to motivate and enable the supplier, and to verify that the supplier follows the requirements. The study used three different research methods: interviews with environmental managers, focus group discussions and a survey of two multinational companies and their operating units in several countries.It concludes that cooperation between the purchasing and environmental functions within a company is frequently not sufficiently achieved in implementation of ISO 14001; this makes the communication of customer requirements to suppliers less efficient. Building close relationships with suppliers is important to overcome initial difficulties, but this often conflicts with having a large supplier base. For the supplier to have an ISO 14001 certificate is seldom an absolute requirement, however, preference is often given to such suppliers. The value of the ISO 14001 certificate, as a proof of environmental performance, is a combination of the supplier's environmental ambitions, the advancement of supply chain practices of the customer and the ambitions of the certification bodies. Supplier audits are not commonly used as they are resource-consuming. Monitoring and verification approaches need further development.