Measuring CO2 emissions level for more sustainable distribution in a supply chain

Abstract

The stakeholders put pressure on supply chain managers to provide the performance which is economically viable and also environmentally sound. The inclusion of environmental factors in the set of periodically measured KPIs, such as the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) becomes more crucial. The aim of this paper is to identify the challenges, which appear when measuring the carbon footprint in a supply chain. The emphasis is put on the direct emissions from distribution operations in terms of European perspective. Through literature review and two case studies conducted in the retailing companies we identify the factors which influence the CO2in the area of distribution in a supply chain. The result of the conducted research is of great importance for the creation of more sustainable and green distribution supply chains (GrSC). On the basis of surveys conducted among transport managers, the mainfactors determining the emissivity of the supply chain have been shown. Also the main challenges faced enterprises thatwant to measure and manage their carbon footprint of distribution processes were identified. The main contribution of this paper is to provide anactionable set of variables which shall be included by supply chain managers in their decision-making processin order to make the distribution operations more sustainable.

Keywords

• carbon footprint assessment
• sustainable supply chain management
• environmental approach within supply chain
• ghg assessment methods