Procurement Sustainability

Mar 13, 2015

Q: Food vs Fuel? A: Wrong question…We need more efficient markets!

I have been working with Jay Golden at Duke University on the biobased forecasting project for the USDA, seeking to understand the current scope of the biobased product market (…

Nov 10, 2014

Sustainable Luxury: Managing Social and Environmental Performance in Iconic Brands (BOOK REVIEW)

“Luxury is a necessity that begins when necessity ends.” – Coco Chanel In this blog, I review the new book “Sustainable Luxury” by Gardetti and Torres. Most people who buy…

Oct 8, 2014

USDA releases study on Biobased Economy

The USDA released a new study that I worked on with Jay Golden from Duke University this past summer. We spent a good deal of time collecting research from a…

Aug 27, 2014

Insights into Ethical Supply Chains – from Software Advice

I was interviewed by Forrest Burnson from Software Advice — a company providing SCM software research and reviews — earlier this month on insights related to sustainable supply chains. This is…

Jun 20, 2014

The Emergence of the Biobased Economy

Jay Golden from Duke University and I have been working on a study of the biobased economy…. Throughout human history agriculture been used for non-food purposes including energy, clothing, shelter,…

Feb 18, 2014

Challenges and possible solutions for local seafood supply chains

Professor Gary Bullen and SCRC Research Scholar Jessica Newsome spoke in my Local Seafood class this afternoon. Both pointed out some critical points that are indeed challenges for the seafood…

Aug 18, 2013

Another Fall semester brings a new batch of 50 SCRC company projects…

As we go into our 2013 fall semester, the SCRC team is pulling together the list of project summaries from our 15 corporate partners. This is indeed a busy time…

May 13, 2013

Do markets reward sustainable supply chains? The forces of social capital may change the rules…

In a recent dialogue with Barbara Grey, the author of new research on social capital today, we discovered an interesting anomaly. It seems that companies who seek to identify…

May 8, 2013

So Your Supply Chain is Banning Bangladesh….and Going to Cambodia?: "The Ugliest Race to the Bottom"

In our ongoing discussion of labor and human rights violations in the supply chain, we’ve discussed in prior posts the problems that occurred in Bangladesh resulting in over 700 dead.…

May 6, 2013

600 Dead in Bangladesh: Is there a soul to the enterprise?

News of the increasing death toll in Bangladesh continues to pour in, with the latest at 600 found dead in the rubble of the Rama factory complex. Demonstrators are protesting…