Symposium/Collaborative Research: Carbon Supply Chain: A New Frontier for Supply Chain Research; Arlington, Virginia; Fall 2010

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

This grant is to support the organization of a symposium on the design, analysis and modeling of low carbon footprint supply chains. The symposium will be held over two days in the fall of 2010 at the headquarters of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Symposium will bring together researchers with backgrounds in Supply Chain Management, Energy, the Environment, Economics, and Public Policy, among others. It will also involve representatives from governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and industry. Although there is growing interest in industry in minimizing the carbon footprint of supply chains, the research community, particularly in supply chain and operations management, has been noticeably absent from the discussion. Some of the questions that will be addressed in the symposium include: 1)How should the carbon footprint of a supply chain be measured and how should it be allocated across the participating firms and across products 2)How would various types of regulation and environmental policies affect the design and operation of supply chains? 3)Is it possible to reconcile the needs of cost efficiency, customer responsiveness, system reliability and lower carbon emissions? 4)What analytical methods, computational tools, and data are needed to support the design, planning, and coordination of low carbon emission supply chains? 5)How should products be redesigned to support low carbon emission supply chains? 6)What data are needed to support the monitoring and analysis of supply chain carbon footprints? Who should collect the data and who should pay for its collection? 7)What impact would product carbon labeling have on consumer choices? What impact would such choices have on decisions made by suppliers? If successful, the symposium will accomplish the following objectives: 1)It will create greater awareness of issues surrounding carbon footprint, energy efficiency, and the supply chain. 2)It will support the development of a research community that draws from different disciplines around these issues and will support this community in articulating a research agenda. 3)It will encourage collaborations between academic researchers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industry in the design, analysis and modeling of low carbon footprint supply chains.