MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab
What are Sustainable Supply Chains?
Supply chains are a powerful mechanism for connecting people and products, providing a ready venue for industry and stakeholders to collaboratively advance the Sustainable Development Goals. As consumers, governments, and investors become increasingly conscious of environmental and social issues, many companies seek to address their concerns by reconsidering their supply chains. But identifying, and more importantly, finding appropriate solutions for better and more sustainable systems proves challenging to most corporations that need to carefully balance competing business objectives and priorities.
The challenge
After the COVID-19 pandemic, and even before, the increase in logistics intensity due to e-commerce is pushing companies to offer faster and more frequent deliveries, which increases fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Currently, transportation is the industry that contributes the most to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States.
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Contribution of Transportation to the total emissions of GHG in the US
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Contribution of Transportation to the total emissions of GHG globally
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Online shopping share in the total retail trade
Our mission
The MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab aims to support organizations to improve logistics and supply chain operations by creating applied and innovative research aimed at fostering growth while considering environmental and social sustainability. We connect research outcomes to practical settings, enabling companies and stakeholders to leverage supply chains as a beneficial force to reach global sustainable development goals. We also seek to improve the visibility of supply chain impacts and develop strategies to help reduce them, so companies can better address consumer, political, and shareholder concerns.
Current Research Initiatives
Sustainable Supply Chain engages in research with industry-leading companies, institutions and fellow academics.
Electrification of the Supply Chain
Consumer-faced logistics sustainability
Carbon Footprint
Sustainable Transportation
Circular Supply Chains
State of Supply Chain Sustainability
Sustainable Supply Chain Management Online Course
Transform your organization’s climate pledges into actionable strategies through better supply chain management. Modeled on our for-credit MIT course, SCM.290x provides the foundation for you to meet stakeholders’ demands for supply chain sustainability.
Stay connected to learn more about the next run of the course SCM.290x.
Our Research Partners
More Sustainable Research at MIT CTL
The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics has several Sustainable initiatives that aim to connect research outcomes to practical settings, enabling companies and stakeholders to leverage supply chains as a beneficial force to reaching sustainable development goals.
Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab
MegaCity Logistics Lab
Sustainable Supply Chain Updates
Green Home Delivery Consolidation
Last-mile home delivery is the last segment of the delivery process, and within there are significant fulfillment constraints and an associated economic and environmental costs. The “Green Button” Project allows customers to make the eco-friendly choice of waiting a...
“Green Button Project” Consumer Preference for Green Last Mile Home Delivery
In the era of e-commerce and climate change, sustainability in last-mile delivery operations has a pivotal role. The boost of online shopping and increasing expectations of fast shipping means more vehicles on the road with lower utilization, higher frequency of...
Decarbonizing the Air Transportation Sector
New Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) greenhouse gas (GHG) emission accounting and insetting guidelines developed through a collaboration between MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) and Smart Freight Centre (SFC).
State of Supply Chain Sustainability | Earth Day Infographic 2021
It’s our annual Earth Day State of Supply Chain Sustainability Infographic release. This year we highlight the insights on Covid-19 and Supply Chain Sustainability
NEW Research Article: The competitiveness of fair trade and organic versus conventional coffee based on consumer panel data
This paper analyzed the competitiveness of premium and regular Fair Trade and Organic (FTO) coffees relative to conventional coffee using consumer panel data.
New article in Transportation Research Part D: Well-to-tank carbon emissions from crude oil maritime transportation
We are thrilled to announce a new article in the journal Transportation Research Part D : Transport and Environment. This paper was developed in collaboration with Professor Haiying Jia (https://www.nhh.no/en/employees/faculty/haiying-jia/) from the Department of...
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