Green Supply Chain (LGSC) 558

Course Overview

In organizations, sustainability can be loosely defined as using resources to meet current needs without compromising the ability to meet future needs. Supply chain managers are in a natural position to spearhead sustainability initiatives because of the cross-functional and inter-organizational nature of their roles. To expose students to the considerable breadth and depth of issues in developing sustainable or “green” supply chains, this course spans several critical functional areas—logistics/transportation, marketing/distribution, and operations and purchasing—as well as the three elements of the triple bottom line: environmental, economic, and social.

Course Outline

• Lesson 1: What Is Supply Chain Sustainability?
• Lesson 2: Upstream (Purchasing) Issues
• Lesson 3: Downstream (Marketing and Distribution) Issues
• Lesson 4: Sustainable Transportation

Course Objectives

After completing this course, learners will be able to:

• discuss the functional breadth and topical scope of supply chain sustainability;
• evaluate supply chain sustainability tools and metrics that would work for their organization;
• describe and suggest applications for the role of purchasing in sustainable supply chain management;
• explain how sustainability reporting and social responsibility reporting can be used to support supply chain sustainability;
• discuss how transportation affects supply chain sustainability, and how inter-organizational relationships can help increase transportation sustainability;
• outline the possible trade-offs between sustainability, safety, and efficiency.

Student Evaluation

Students will be evaluated based on their participation in weekly online discussions (50%) and one comprehensive written assignment (50%). To pass the course, students must achieve 60% or more on each of the credit activities.