Supply Chain Sustainability

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the subject of sustainable supply chains in business. The course provides a basic understanding of the nature of complex supply chains, the role that sustainability plays in business, and the most commonly encountered challenges in a business career. This course looks at how we integrate environmentally, socially, and financially viable practices into an organization’s complete product and/or services lifecycle, from product design and development to material selection (including raw material extraction or agricultural production), manufacturing, packaging, transportation and end-of-life. It is about managing the supply base to drive innovation towards a more sustainable future. It provides practical advice on how to identify supply chain sustainability issues when they arise, how to get enough information to assess one’s responsibilities, how to analyze a complex set of choices, and how to marshal the resources of a large organization to act responsibly and ethically. While the course includes some business theory, it is designed to be approached by the seasoned manager, the novice businessperson and students in school.