Sustainable development of global supply chains—part 2: investigation of the European automotive industry

Abstract

In global industry supply chains, environmental sustainability optimization addresses the overall consumption of resources and energy, the reduction of carbon emissions and generated waste to name a few. In the second part of this paper, we apply the sustainability optimization framework developed in part 1 to the European automotive industry supply chain. Numerical experiments based on empirical industry data show the impact of optimization strategies on overall costs and emissions in the industry and the possible long-term development of the industry supply chain including the relocation of production capacities, the choice of transportation modes and the potential change towards lower emission products such as electric vehicles. In addition we demonstrate how the novel optimization strategy of minimizing the time-to-sustainability is applied and how it creates transparency of the feasibility of different sustainability targets, e.g. reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the minimum time is determined the industry would need to achieve the pre-defined targets. Related optimization results create new insights and provide decision support for policymakers and industry in developing sustainability strategies and specific targets.