Managing sustainability in supply chains: the sustainable Demand-Supply chain approach, a proposal for a pragmatic approach in the food sector
Abstract
This article highlights the need of an operational approach to really integrate sustainability in the decision–making process that influences the food supply chain management. Referring to the stakeholder theory, and using a very pragmatic point of view, we are interested into how firms can, in real terms, build supply chains that take into account simultaneously the economic, the social and the environmental dimensions of sustainability. We propose a step-by-step approach that we name sustainable demand-supply chain (SDSC). This approach requires two choices from the firms: i. giving the leading role to sustainability in the corporate strategy, ii. combining the demand management and the supply chain management. The main proposals of this approach are: the definition of a " specified extended demand " and the building of a demand-supply chain dedicated to answer this " specified extended demand ". A fictional illustration of this new approach, in the food industry, is provided to help comprehension. We conclude with the interests and the limits of this approach, the possible difficulties to be faced, and a first research program to test this approach.