Sustainability assessment in supply chain network design: the application of sustainable policies in the agrifood sector
本文研究了可持续政策对供应链设计的影响，提出了一个优化框架作为事前评估工具，通过经济、环境和社会因素计算实现可持续目标的最短时间，并以哥伦比亚乳制品行业为例进行验证。
Assessing sustainability performance is crucial for ensuring industries align with sustainable development goals, contributing to society’s well-being. This paper investigates the impact of sustainable policies on supply chain design, examining how such policies drive industries to adopt greener production technologies, impose production caps, or relocate facilities. Unlike studies focused on individual companies, this research evaluates these impacts at the industry level. It introduces an optimization framework as an ex-ante sustainability assessment tool to compare industry performance in a business-as-usual scenario versus one with sustainable policy implementation. The model considers economic, environmental, and social factors, using the Time-to-Sustainability optimization approach to calculate the minimum time needed to achieve sustainability goals. This framework is instrumental in evaluating the effects of sustainability policies like the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on supply chains. The findings offer valuable decision support for policymakers crafting strategic sustainability pathways. A case study on Colombia’s dairy industry, using data from Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions for the country’s low-carbon strategy, highlights challenges in transforming the industry. The proposed framework aims to contribute to and assess sustainable agricultural production, but it is general in scope and can be adapted to other industries with appropriate sustainability goals.