About Us

What we do

Supply chain sustainability is now a business imperative fueled by the demands and requirements of consumers, governments, investors, and third parties. Investors and consumers are requiring increasingly robust social and environmental action from organizations.

To better understand and support these changes, MIT CTL researchers and faculty spanning a range of expertise areas have come together in this initiative to individually and collaboratively address the problem of understanding and influencing the social and environmental impacts of supply chain business processes.

This work serves as a platform for MIT CTL to engage with students, industry, and stakeholders on research, education, and engagement related to sustainable supply chains. We aspire to empower current and future generation of supply chain leaders to make a positive impact on people and planet while meeting their business needs. Educating future supply chain professionals is the key to enabling the future of sustainable supply chains.

The Challenges

Currently, transportation contributes roughly 28% of the United States’ total greenhouse gas (GHG) making it the largest source of GHG emissions in the country.

GHG emissions from the transportation sector may double by 2050 due to the rate of adoption of vehicles in developing countries.

Highly urbanized cities and increasing trends in Omni-channel operations increase CO2 emissions.

Online shopping is growing in the United States and represents 9.6% of the total retail trade in 2018.

The increase of logistics intensity due to e-commerce is pushing companies to offer faster and more frequent deliveries, which increases fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

A tractor-trailer truck on open highway at sunrise

Aerial view of criss-crossing roadways in sunset light

The Opportunities

While companies face many challenges in their logistics and supply chain operations, there are plenty of opportunities to reduce not only their environmental impact but also costs. Since many emissions reduction projects revolve around increasing fuel efficiency, sustainability positively impacts the bottom line as well.

Companies can incorporate sustainable logistics through different initiatives, such as:

Optimize last-mile operations by selecting proper vehicles according to the characteristics of the routes.
Study consumer behavior and the environmental impact of same-day delivery: Analyze the drivers that affect the customer’s willingness to wait for home delivery after providing environmental impact information.
Design sustainable and cost-effective transportation modes: Help planners make choices that can be expressed not only in monetary terms but also in environmental benefits associated with the implementation of these modes.
Identify what patterns or characteristics within different regions can explain the variability of CO2 emissions among them.
Analyze how to improve routing decisions, what is the effect of topography in these decisions, and when solutions that consider topography affect the distance-min route.
Analyze the relationship between CO2 emissions in transportation and driver behavioral patterns.