Lecture- A Strategy of Measuring Carbon Footprint in Supply Chain

Campus A, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission-219

2017 Dec.14, 10:00 am

A Strategy of Measuring Carbon Footprint in Supply Chain

Title：A Strategy of Measuring Carbon Footprint in Supply Chain
Time：10:00 am, Dec.14, 2017
Place：Campus A, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission-219
Speaker：Jialun Hu
Host：Ming K. Lim, Professor, Dean

Biography
Jialun Hu is currently a lecturer in Business & Management at the School of Strategy & Leadership, Coventry University, specialising in operations management and supply chain. His research areas are within sustainability & low carbon management in the supply chain, industrial symbiosis & circular economy, and more recently the IoT (Internet of Things) application in sustainability issues. Jialun has published his research work in international conferences, research reports, and book chapters. As well he had worked with international companies such as GM, Dell, Huawei, and NGOs e.g. WWF. Before joining Coventry University, Jialun graduated with a Ph.D. from the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge. And he has gained his Bachelor's and Master's training from Automation Department at Tsinghua University.

Abstract
Climate change has been recognized as one of the most serious challenges that emerging economies are facing. Supply networks now have to cope with the contradictive challenge to win in the new generation of low carbon development. The first step is an effective measurement to supply chain carbon footprint. However, the measuring process is not an easy task and requires technical knowledge, firm internal coordination, and especially supply network coordination. In this talk, we discuss the question: How can carbon emission be efficiently measured in supply networks? The researcher conducted interviews with operation managers, sustainability specialists, and consultants of 10 case companies in ICT (Information, Communication & Technology), beverage, and steel industries focusing on the organizational structure, management, procedure, and resources of the carbon footprinting process. For results, it is found that supplier engagement and internal capability are the two core factors for successful carbon footprinting. Firms will need IT software to support carbon measurement as the next step. As well the routinization of measurement enables the firms to further build up low-carbon capability for continuous improvement. Based on the firms’ carbon-related objectives, we proposed a ‘Three-Scenario’ measurement process with mini-steps and detailed guidelines for practitioners to follow.