Understanding environmental sustainability of supply chains: The biofuels industry in the United Kingdom

The aim of this article is to explain how the economic and environmental bottom lines of supply chains can be understood and improved simultaneously. The article highlights some of the inherent complexities in understanding the ecological impacts of supply chains as well as the linkages with economic supply chain analysis. The article presents a case study of a biofuels chain explaining how to simultaneously analyse and improve the economic and environmental performances of the chain. The empirical evidence shows key shortcomings in the sustainable supply chain management body of knowledge. The article also describes sustainable supply chain management as an emerging domain in the protection belt of the SCM body of knowledge and discusses this gap through empirical research. The case study analysis presented in this article contributes to the research on empirical approaches for simultaneous understanding of economic and sustainable impacts of supply chains and offers important insights for further investigation