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Workshop on the Design of Sustainable Product Systems and Supply Chains; Final Report,
Citation:
Hawkins, T. AND R. Smith. Workshop on the Design of Sustainable Product Systems and Supply Chains; Final Report, . Arlington, VA, September 12 - 13, 2011. U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R/13/040, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
This is a report on the proceedings of the Workshop on the Design of Sustainable Product Systems and Supply Chains. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the American Institute for Chemical Engineers. The workshop and summary are intended to provide insight into key research needs and directions for the design of sustainable product systems and supply chains.
Description:
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP The Workshop on the Design of Sustainable Product Systems and Supply Chains was held September 12–13, 2011 at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) offices in Arlington, Virginia. The Workshop was co-sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD), the National Science Foundation, (NSF) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Center for Sustainable Technology Practices. The purpose of the Workshop was to foster collaboration and promote the development of a research community focused on sustainability and supply chains. This was accomplished by bringing together a diverse group of researchers and other professionals with experience relevant to sustainable supply chain design. GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP The goal of the workshop was to engage experts with experience in several areas. From experts with experience working within a broad, systems perspective, the goal was to elicit understanding of the key shortcomings of current practices and identify practical ways in which new or repurposed approaches could be integrated within existing frameworks. In the case of experts with experience working within a narrower focus, the goal was to work together to understand how these approaches could be integrated within existing frameworks or larger-scale models. Finally, the goal was also to explore opportunities for applying discipline-specific approaches to other problems related to the design of sustainable supply chains. OVERVIEW This report provides the agenda of the meeting events, an executive summary of the reports back from the Breakout Groups, as well as additional perspectives. The report includes two Appendices: the first provides the notes from the Breakout Group sessions, as well as meeting materials, including the goals of the meeting, a list of participants, biosketches and position statements of the participants, and complete contact information on the participants; the second provides the PowerPoint presentations given at the meeting. Readers are advised to refer to these resources for more detailed information.