Toward the Integration of Sustainability Metrics into the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model

Abstract

The consideration of ecological and social impacts of supply chains is becoming a pressing issue and a competitive advantage for companies. Therefore, sustainability-related aspects have to be identified and integrated into supply chain management to allow for sustainable performance measurement. However, the widely recognized Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model and its extensional Green SCOR model do not comprehensively address the triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability, i.e., the interplay of the economic, environmental, and social dimensions, especially because social aspects are neglected so far. Furthermore, the ecological metrics are mainly output oriented, thereby omitting input factors that are crucial to environmental performance. Against this background, this chapter (1) elaborates on literature concerned with the integration of the TBL of sustainability into supply chain management processes and (2) develops a conceptual framework to match sustainability metrics to the SCOR processes. On the one hand, the resulting conceptualization contributes to closing the current research gap on the integration of sustainability metrics into supply chain process models, and on the other hand, it alleviates practice application through compatibility with the standardized SCOR model. It is found that environmental metrics can be directly related to existing SCOR process elements, while social metrics are more difficult to integrate. Nevertheless, the research presented should subsequently be subject to empirical validation and formal mathematical modeling to shed light on holistic sustainability performance measurement of supply chains.