I hope you have started this year in
health and wealth.
In the second phase of my PhD research journey,
I am going to shed more light on sustainable development in context of supply
chains (‘sustainable supply chains’) as well as LTH (‘sustainable LTH’). My
intention is to explain: main themes in developing environmentally and socially sustainable supply
chains/LTH, pattern of research-based challenges in developing sustainable
supply chains, and reasonable propositions for tackling the challenges. As I am
persuaded by the value of the complexity glasses, I am going to elaborate on
‘themes’, ‘challenges’, and ‘propositions’ out of a ‘complexity theory perspective’.
Although there are various definitions of sustainable development, my
standpoint is what was popularized in Our
Common Future - a report published by the World Commission on Environment
and Development (WCED) in 1987 - also known as Brundtland report: “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Following the United Nations 2005
World Summit, sustainable development encompasses the interdependent and
mutually reinforcing pillars of economic development (Profit), social
development (People) and environmental protection (Planet). The three pillars
or Ps of sustainable development are also called the ‘three bottom lines’ or ‘triple
bottom lines’ (TBL or 3BL).
The purpose of sustainable development is to both
sustain and sustainably develop all the triple bottom lines together. Sustainable
development can be treated from both micro- and macro levels of economy and society.
Although I am going to explain themes, challenges, and solutions out of a micro level of
the economy (supply chains of a specific industry/corporation), they
may also be relevant out of macro level (supply chains of the whole industries
of a nation, a continent/region, or the entire world).
