Description
Book SynopsisThis incisive book integrates the academic fields of sustainable production and consumption (SCP) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) as a framework for challenging the current economic paradigm and addressing the significant ecological and environmental problems faced by the contemporary business world.
Outlining the growth and progress of consumption in the developed world, initial chapters explore the numerous problems that have emerged from the current mode of consuming resources, and how we might engage in more sustainable consumption practices. The book goes on to address the historical development of mass production and the ecological damage caused by an unsustainable linkage between mass consumption and mass production. Considering the future of the supply web, it illustrates how SSCM can play a leading role in the transition towards a more sustainable economic system if it is able to address contemporary ecological concerns more effectively.
This insightful and optimistic platform for ecological supply chain management is a rousing call to arms for business and management scholars hoping to propose innovative methods of improving the sustainability of consumption, production and supply webs. It will also benefit the work of business practitioners and entrepreneurs looking to engage in more sustainable business operations.
Table of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction to Sustainable Consumption, Production and Supply Chain Management PART I UNSUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION 2. Sustainable consumption: an intractable problem? 3. Learning from the crisis 4. A transition phase: ‘reconfiguration’ 5. Consumption and our place in nature 6. A new role for marketing? 7. Unsustainable consumption: conclusions PART II UNSUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION 8. Economies of scale and the roots of mass production 9. Importance of mass car production 10. Origins of mass production: summary 11. Europe takes the technology lead: the case of Citroën 12. The death of craft production: Ford and Budd’s impact on the French car industry 13. Mass production in food 14. Unsustainable production: conclusions PART III SUPPLY WEBS: LINKING PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 15. Toyotism: mass production adopts supply-chain thinking 16. Building sustainable supply chains 17. Learning from natural supply systems: towards ecological supply chain management 18. Supply webs: conclusions PART IV ARE WE GETTING ANY CLOSER TO SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION, PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY WEBS? 19. Solutions? 20. Is population really a problem? 21. Will innovation save us? 22. Alternatives to mass production 23. Conclusions: SCP and SSCM – an elusive vision? References Index
