Sustainable Supply Chain Management is quite a new topic in the field of production, logistics and supply chain management. Environmental and social impacts along the supply chain and over the life cycle of products are often still neglected, but there is increasing pressure from society and politics to implement general concepts like “circular economy” and “sustainable development”.

When integrating sustainability in supply chain models, multiple objectives have to be regarded in order to account for the trade-offs between economic, environmental and social objectives. It is no longer possible to develop narrow first-best-solution disciplinary models, but inter- and multidisciplinary research is needed (engineering, natural science, business administration, OR…) combining supply chain models with concepts of life cycle assessment, industrial ecology, product design, (bio)chemical processes, etc.

This EURO Working Group on Sustainable Supply Chains will share insides, datasets, trends and hotspots and will provide a reference point for all researchers in the field of Operations Management and Operations Research with an interest in closing loops and making supply chains more sustainable. The group meetings will encourage the exchange of information among practitioners, users and researchers in this area.

We endorse the EURO WISDOM Forum objectives to support, empower, and encourage the participation of all genders in OR.