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.

MIT Sustainable Research Team 

Dr. Josué Velázquez Martínez

Dr. Josué Velázquez Martínez

Director

Dr. Vytaute Dlugoborskyte

Dr. Vytaute Dlugoborskyte

Postdoctoral Researcher

Camilo Mora-Quiñones

Camilo Mora-Quiñones

Project Manager

Research Collaborators in CTL

Prof. Yossi Sheffi

Prof. Yossi Sheffi

Director, Center for Transportation and Logistics

Dr. Eva Ponce

Dr. Eva Ponce

Director, Omnichannel Distribution Strategy Lab

Dr. David Corrrell

Dr. David Corrrell

Co-Director, Freight Lab

Dr. Matthias Winkenbach

Dr. Matthias Winkenbach

Director, Megacity Logistics & CAVE Labs

International Research Collaborators

Prof. Joachim Arts

Prof. Joachim Arts

Professor, Luxembourg Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Prof. Claudio Barbieri Da Cunha

Prof. Claudio Barbieri Da Cunha

Professor, Transportation Engineering, University of São Paulo

Prof. Pilar Arroyo

Prof. Pilar Arroyo

Professor, Engineering School and EGADE Business School at Tec de Monterrey

Prof. Tarkan Tan

Prof. Tarkan Tan

Associate Professor, School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology

Prof. Jan C. Fransso

Prof. Jan C. Fransso

Professor of Operations and Logistics Management, Tilburg University

Prof. Martín Tanco

Prof. Martín Tanco

Dean Faculty of Engineering, University of Montevideo

Prof.  Hugo Yoshizaki

Prof. Hugo Yoshizaki

Professor, Transportation Engineering, University of São Paulo

Dr. Melvin Drent

Dr. Melvin Drent

Assistant Professor, Supply Chain Management, Eindhoven University of Technology

Visiting Students & Alumni

Sayda Benitez

Sayda Benitez

Tec de Monterrey, February - December 2019

Mojdeh Azad

Mojdeh Azad

PhD Candidate University of Tennessee, September - December 2019

Agustin Perez

Agustin Perez

Tec de Monterrey, Summer 2019

Denis Davydov

Denis Davydov

EPFL, 2017

Aniruddha Suhas Deshpande

Aniruddha Suhas Deshpande

TPP – 2021

Ars-Vita Alamsyah

Ars-Vita Alamsyah

SCM - 2021

Hea Akau

Hea Akau

MIT Sloan 2022

Jacob Backstrom

Jacob Backstrom

SCM – 2021

Jason Pang

Jason Pang

SCM – 2021

Kelly Sorel

Kelly Sorel

SCM – 2021

Namuun Purevdorj

Namuun Purevdorj

SCM – 2021

Niranjini Kumarja

Niranjini Kumarja

SCM – 2021

Ashley Barrington

Ashley Barrington

SCM – 2020

Elizabeth Raman

Elizabeth Raman

SCM – 2020

Abdelrahman Hefny

Abdelrahman Hefny

SCM – 2020

Saikat Banerjee

Saikat Banerjee

SCM – 2020

Catherine Dame

Catherine Dame

SCM – 2020

Laura Allegue

Laura Allegue

SCM – 2020

Carson G Collard

Carson G Collard

SCM – 2020

Gabriela Rubio Domingo

Gabriela Rubio Domingo

SCM – 2020

Sadia Shathi

Sadia Shathi

SCM – 2020