Sustainable Non-Renewable Materials Management

Abstract

The supply of non-renewable materials, critical to the operation of supply chains, is today hampered by factors such as rapid resource depletion and overuse, national policies and fluctuations in global markets. This chapter presents the challenges and strategies for securing materials for production, while increasing the supply chain’s efficiency and sustainability as a whole. It also outlines advanced tools available to decision makers today such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and ISO standards that operationalize sustainability principles and facilitate better decision making on multiple levels including supply chain managers, firms’ executives, and policy makers.