The application of sustainability practices at the system level begins with the supply chain. In the business realm, incorporating such practices allows organizations to redesign their operations more effectively. Emerging Applications in Supply Chains for Sustainable Business Development is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the models, strategies, and analyses that are essential for developing and managing a sustainable supply chain. While highlighting topics such as agile manufacturing and the world food crisis, this publication is ideally designed for business managers, academicians, business practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students seeking current research on sustainable supply chain management.

The global supply chain creates environmental and social burdens during different stages of production and distribution. Ethical and sustainable practices along the supply chain seek to minimize these burdens and ensure fair labor practices, lower emissions, and a cleaner environment. Ethical and Sustainable Supply Chain Management in a Global Context uses cases, qualitative studies, empirical results, and analyses of legal frameworks to focus on ethics and sustainability as they relate to the management of global supply chains. Featuring research on topics such as production planning, consumer awareness, and labor laws, this book is ideally designed for managers, policymakers, professionals, researchers, and students working in the field of sustainable development and related disciplines including marketing, economics, finance, operations management, supply chain management, environmental science, and waste management.

Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 78 % (1,0), University of Exeter (Business School), course: Strategy/Operations, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction “Ethics are in vogue” is an assertion drawn after the International Herald Tribune (IHT) conference on luxury (Smale, 2007). The reason for this statement is the presumption of an emergent type of luxury consumer whose purchase decision is up to the ethical behaviour of business. Is this concept mere wishful thinking or does it reflect empirical reality, since the latter would void the expression “the devil wears Prada”. It is obvious, that the conventional way of economic development not any longer satisfies the needs of the world in which we live – “the environment is, without doubt, one area which is being subjected to greater public scrutiny” (Dembkowski and Hanmer-Llyod, 1994). Society increasingly requires a healthy living, innovative, efficient and safe technologies as well as a “stable and safe” natural and social environment (Jochem 2011). The media especially reports on ethical and sustainable business conduct and its affects on “human health, the ecosystem and future generations” (Bonacchi and Rinaldi, 2006). Simultaneously to the increasing requirements of ethical and sustainable business conduct, the luxury fur demand is substantially growing. From US $ 456.99 million in 2001, the world fur outlook estimates an increase in sales up to US $ 854.13 million in 2011 (Parker, 2005) - fur auction houses sell “record-breaking” numbers. Fur re-emerges as a fashionable design material; especially younger designers are “fascinated with fur and use it in innovative ways” (Foreman, 2010). The material has also trickled down to the streets - the younger generation demands it more than ever; even child fashion designers use it for their collections (Vulsier, 2010). The inherent question from these insights is whether both developments, namely an increasing requirement of sustainable and ethical business conduct as well as a growing fur fashion demand, are in line or in contrast to each other. Thus, is a fur producer ethical and sustainable? The author aims to gain knowledge whether a fur business responds to these external societal requirements regarding ethics and sustainability and whether ethical and sustainable or unethical and insustainable business conduct implicates advantages or disadvantages. This study will examine the topics ethics and sustainability within a fur business. The research will examine the supply chain sustainability performance and ethicality of a fur producer and trader from a business and consumer perspective.

Suitable for graduate students in engineering or business, executive MBA students, and mid-to upper level non-profits and business managers, this book provides guidelines and tools for analyzing the current or proposed supply chain and concepts for improving the sustainability dimensions of the system.

Sustainability can create greater efficiency and cost savings in the supply chain. Supply chains, which are more complex and global than ever before, are full of both risks and opportunities. The risks range from inconsistent or poor quality, supply disruptions and health and safety concerns, to corruption. Businesses face pressure to adopt sustainable supply chain practices from various stakeholders and motivations typically come from one or more of four sources: customers, compliance, costs, competitive advantage. Sustainability in Global Value Chains is the guide to understanding all aspects and approaches of sustainable supply chains using in-depth research from leading academics from sixteen different universities. Sustainability in Global Value Chains focuses on how to make supply chains sustainable, with an emphasis on new technologies and digitization. The research featured covers topics such as KPIs in production and supply chains, the role of standards, blockchain technology and algebraic models. This comprehensive book presents real world issues, problems in implementing sustainability in the supply chain and examples of best practice.

Food is a source of nourishment, a cause for celebration, an inducement to temptation, a means of influence, and signifies good health and well-being. Together with other life enhancing goods such as clean water, unpolluted air, adequate shelter and suitable clothing, food is a basic good which is necessary for human flourishing. In recent times, however, various environmental and social challenges have emerged, which are having a profound effect on both the natural world and built environment – such as climate change, feeding a growing world population, nutritional poverty and obesity. Consequently, whilst the relationships between producers, supermarkets, regulators and the individual have never been more important, they are becoming increasingly complicated. In the context of a variety of hard and soft law solutions, with a particular focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the authors explore the current relationship between all actors in the global food supply chain. Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Justice and the Global Food Supply Chain also provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary response to current calls for reform in relation to social and environmental justice, and proposes an alternative approach to current CSR initiatives. This comprises an innovative multi-agency proposal, with the aim of achieving a truly responsible and sustainable food retail system. Because only by engaging in the widest possible participatory exercise and reflecting on the urban locale in novel, material and cultural ways, is it possible to uncover new directions in understanding, framing and tackling the modern phenomena of, for instance, food deserts, obesity, nutritional poverty and social injustice. Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Justice and the Global Food Supply Chain engages with a variety of disciplines, including, law, economics, management, marketing, retailing, politics, sociology, psychology, diet and nutrition, consumer behaviour, environmental studies and geography. It will be of interest to both practitioners and academics, including postgraduate students, social scientists and policy-makers.

The issue of sustainability has become a vital discussion in many industries within the public and private sectors. In the business realm, incorporating such practices allows organizations to re-design their operations more effectively. Green Supply Chain Management for Sustainable Business Practice examines the challenges and benefits of implementing sustainability into the core functions of contemporary enterprises, focusing on how green approaches improve operations in an ecological way. Highlighting key concepts, emerging innovations, and future directions, this book is a pivotal reference source for professionals, managers, educators, and upper-level students.