Carbon emission modeling in green supply chain management

Research on carbon emission management is becoming a very important part of the green supply chain landscape as more businesses continue to make it part of their business strategy, amid pressures from customers, competitors and regulatory agencies. To contribute to the body of knowledge in this emerging research stream a series of lot size models that consider both economic and environmental performances are developed for the carbon emission conscious retailer, manufacturer and a combined model of the retailer and manufacturer. As a matter of expediency, the combined retailer-manufacturer model (Banerjee, 1986) is referred to as the system in this dissertation. The carbon tax mechanism and carbon cap-and-trade mechanism are the most efficient market-based options used to lower carbon emission in practice. These mechanisms are integrated into the developed lot size models, the results of which could provide the carbon emission conscious retailer, manufacturer and the system with optimal lot size and cost strategies. The findings also shed more light for decision makers and policymakers on the impact of carbon tax and carbon trading regulatory policies on the business strategies of the firm. In addition, this dissertation contributes to the current sparse quantitative literature on carbon emission and green supply chain research