Title: Introducing the environmental profile of green supply chains to assess their environmental capability

Authors: Francesco Costantino; Giulio Di Gravio; Massimo Tronci

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Aerospatial Engineering, University of Rome 'La Sapienza', Via Eudossiana, 18. 00184 Rome, Italy. ' Department of Mechanical and Aerospatial Engineering, University of Rome 'La Sapienza', Via Eudossiana, 18. 00184 Rome, Italy. ' Department of Mechanical and Aerospatial Engineering, University of Rome 'La Sapienza', Via Eudossiana, 18. 00184 Rome, Italy

Abstract: Environmental assessment of supply chains is a key research field to provide organisations the opportunity of identifying improvements and measuring the effect of investments in greening products and processes. The focus on supply chain management is growing as a leverage to compete in global markets and handle the always more pressing environmental regulations. The paper describes a study to create an innovative framework to assess the ecological profile of a supply chain, considering existing relations with eco-design principles and a set of legislation requirements along the life-cycle of products. The study considers the case of a domestic dishwasher to verify the capacity and the applicability of the framework and provide a tool to support organisations with a new eco-design tool to evaluate the potential capability of ecological improvements.

Keywords: green supply chains; environmental assessment; environmental compliance; life cycle assessment; LCA; supply chain management; green SCM; eco-design; legislation; domestic dishwashers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEME.2012.049892

International Journal of Engineering Management and Economics, 2012 Vol.3 No.3, pp.193 - 211

Published online: 15 Apr 2015 *

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