MODELING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Open Access
- Author:
- Lucchi, Maria
- Area of Honors:
- Supply Chain and Information Systems
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Robert Alexander Novack, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. John C. Spychalski, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Sustainability
Supply Chain
Carbon Footprint
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Transportation - Abstract:
- As the topic of climate change creeps into the forefront of consumer thoughts, government agendas, and business strategies, organizations on a global scale are taking steps to adapt internally in an effort to fight a changing environment. Furthermore, this research along with many others shifts the focus to the role that business plays in climate change. Because business worldwide has the most harmful impact on the environment and potentially has the greatest ability in terms of wealth and scale to reverse and minimize that harm, corporations are beginning to take action. Much of this action is directed towards reducing the size of an organization’s carbon footprint. This paper uses a Fortune 500 chemical company to build a modeling tool to calculate a portion of the company’s carbon footprint regarding emissions caused by its operations in transportation. The subsequent modeling tool required a specific methodology to estimate the carbon emissions of their in-scope operations. This paper will outline relevant background information, methodology, assumptions, limitations, and validity of the completed tool. Additionally, the next steps for the company regarding the use and future scaling of the modeling tool as well as data collection and formatting for model input will be carefully described.