MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab
About Us
Contact Us
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 MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics launched Sustainable Supply Chains in 2018 as an umbrella program that brings together our sustainability research, education, and outreach. Our mission is 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.
Our mission is 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 reaching global sustainable development goals. We seek to improve visibility of supply chain impacts and develop strategies to help reduce them, so companies can better address consumer, political, and shareholder concerns.
Sustainable Supply Chain Management – MIT.SCM.290x
Transform your organization’s climate pledges into actionable strategies through better supply chain management. Modeled on our for-credit MIT course, SCM290x provides the foundation for you to meet stakeholders’ demands for supply chain sustainability.
This instructor-paced course starts on 8 November 2022 and runs through 17 January 2023. Enrollment is free.
Current Research Initiatives
Sustainable Supply Chain engages in research with industry-leading companies, institutions and fellow academics.
State of Supply Chain Sustainability
Carbon Footprint
Supply Chain Traceability
Communicating Supply Chain Sustainability
Circular Supply Chains
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.
Sustainable Logistics Initiative
MegaCity Logistics Lab
Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab
Our Research Partners


















Sustainable Supply Chain Updates
Optimal Fleet Composition
How do certain vehicles perform on given road & environmental conditions? Which vehicle characteristics have the biggest impact on CO2 emissions?
Topography Vehicle Routing
How to improve routing transportation decisions? What is the effect of topography in routing decisions? When solutions affected by topography affect distance-min route Davydov D., Velázquez-Martínez, J.C., Fransoo, J.C. (2018). “The impact of Topography on...
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...
Get updates to your inbox
Subscribe to get the latest research papers and updates sent to your inbox.