Abstract
PurposeWhile interest in supply chain sustainability has risen over the past few years in academic and business worlds, very little research has been conducted on sustainability in humanitarian supply chains, specifically. This study aims to contribute to the development of the field by conducting a life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA) of sourcing scenarios for a core relief item in a humanitarian supply chain.MethodsThis paper is structured according to the LCSA framework developed by Guinée et al. (Environ Sci Technol 45(1):90–96, 2011). The relief item analyzed is a kitchen set supplied by a UN agency. Environmental, social, and economic impacts of two sourcing scenarios for a kitchen set are mapped: one international and one local. Sources of data include interviews, company records, and online databases. Results are analyzed using the ReCiPe method to assess environmental impact and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) guidelines to assess social impact.Results and discussionWe show how LCSA can be used to map the sustainability of two sourcing scenarios for kitchen sets in a humanitarian supply chain along triple bottom line dimensions. We report findings on sourcing scenarios for distribution to two refugee camps in Kenya: one from a supplier in India and one from a supplier in Kenya. We use an environmental life cycle analysis (LCA), a social LCA, and a life cycle costing (LCC) to analyze differences and similarities. We find that local sourcing is preferred over international sourcing on two out of the three sustainability dimensions—environmental and social impacts. Humanitarian organizations may further use this paper as a guideline to develop their own sustainability assessments of supply chain scenarios.ConclusionsThe results of our study provide a fresh, sustainability-focused perspective on the debate over international vs. local procurement. This paper is the first to apply LCSA to a humanitarian context. It also addresses a void in the sourcing literature by determining the sustainability impacts of different sourcing strategies. The study evaluates only two sourcing options and also uses a limited number of data sources.
Highlights
Sustainability has become an increasingly important issue in commercial supply chains (Golicic and Smith 2013) as businesses realize that it can lead to cost savings, improved compliance, and competitive advantage (Seuring and Müller 2008)
We show how life cycle sustainability analysis (LCSA) can be used to map the sustainability of two sourcing scenarios for kitchen sets in a humanitarian supply chain along triple bottom line dimensions
We find that local sourcing is preferred over international sourcing on two out of the three sustainability dimensions— environmental and social impacts
Summary
Sustainability has become an increasingly important issue in commercial supply chains (Golicic and Smith 2013) as businesses realize that it can lead to cost savings, improved compliance, and competitive advantage (Seuring and Müller 2008). Very little research has been conducted in the area of sustainable supply chain management in humanitarian supply chains (Haavisto and Kovács 2012; Haavisto and Kovács 2014). This is despite the fact that their processes for planning, implementing, and controlling the flows of goods and related information are similar to those used in commercial supply chain management (Thomas and Kopczak 2005). While to some extent the socioeconomic impacts of vendor selection have been researched, environmental impacts (including electricity usage or fuel consumption) and social impacts (such as child labor) have been touched upon only rarely (Haavisto and Kovács 2012)
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