299
Institutionalising Environmental Responsibility in Supply Chains
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC24 Environment and Society (host committee)
Language: Spanish and English
Session Type: Oral
Environmental corporate responsibility (ECR) across the supply chains is a focus of attention for businesses involving a diversity of interests, convictions and practices. It seems to have become a key factor for competitive advantage in national and global markets. Consumers, governments, non-governmental organizations, and global trade bodies are concerned with the environmental impacts of agricultural and industrial supply chains. They are pressing for more sustainability and consider ECR a potential instrument to promote this.
ECR includes practices such as the design, marketing and sale of environmentally friendly products; improving the environmental performance and prevent pollution (for example, water and energy use); showing compliance with legal requirements; minimizing the negative environmental impacts from the business activities and product use; introducing environmental certifications and environmental accountability. These practices often receive a critical reception from other social actors because of fear of ‘greenwashing’. Multiple theoretical perspectives from environmental social sciences are applied on ECR, offering different and sometimes opposite directions to understand the trends, review the challenges and assess the contribution of ECR to sustainable supply chains.
In this session we invite papers that present empirical studies as well as papers that address the theoretical debates on ECR. We are particularly interested in paper reviewing the effectivity of ECR; the role of different stakeholders (consumers, NGOs and governments next to businesses); the use of different instruments such as certifications and standards; low-carbon transitions strategies; and, global vs local green practices and impacts. Papers discussing related topics are also welcome