Suchergebnisse

With the proclaimed advent of Industry 4.0 in supply chains, digitalisation is expected to restructure the ways in which buying firms and suppliers in supply chains collaborate, including on sustainability issues. Digital technologies are expected to foster information exchange and facilitate collaboration on sustainability issues between firms. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence explaining the role of Industry 4.0 in the context of sustainable supply chain management. This qualitative, exploratory study examines digitalisation in the electronics supply chain and its implications for sustainable supply chain collaboration (SCC). We focus on environmental sustainability aspects, such as environmental data analysis and energy use in the supply chain. We conducted 18 interviews with representatives from international electronics buying firms and Chinese suppliers to explore a) how digital technologies are currently used in SCC, and b) which opportunities, risks, and obstacles are associated with digitalisation in sustainable SCC. Our results indicate that a broad range of digital technologies on different digital maturity levels (including Industry 4.0 technologies) are used in SCC, but their use for sustainability purposes is still underdeveloped. Digitalisation is expected by most firms to improve sustainability, e.g., using big data analytics for energy management or easing the transfer of sustainability knowledge in the chain (what we call "digital environmental upgrading"). We argue, however, that if firms do not prioritise addressing sustainability through digitalisation in collaboration, digitalisation-related sustainability potentials will either not materialise on the firm-level, e.g., due to data sharing concerns, or will tend to be overshadowed by the negative indirect effects of digitalisation, such as rebound effects. We propose three political and managerial levers to enhance the overall socio-ecological performance of the supply chain.

Energy Transition towards a low-carbon emission energy system has been a long-term strategy for Germany and China. Both countries are expected to take the lead on the global effort to achieve clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Although Germany and China have different characteristics, international-level strategic cooperation is essential for meeting the goals of both local and global energy transition. However, until now, no comparable research for energy transition in Germany and China exists in a peer-reviewed journal. In order to close this knowledge gap, a critical review was conducted and then some recommendations were proposed. First of all, after reviewing the background, milestones, current situation and challenges, we found infrastructure, policy instruments and market reform played the key roles in the transition process in Germany and China. While nuclear power and coal are likely to be abandoned in Germany, China has more ambition beyond the power sector and to reach self-sufficiency. As the two countries chosen different concepts and pathways to achieve their transition targets, there is great opportunity for them to take the lessons from each other. Germany and China need cooperation at multi-levels varies from politic, economic, scientific to public. Then, recommendations are presented on how to further foster cooperation and enable an energy transition.

Improving the sustainability of traditional resource-based cities in China has been a core issue and policy-priority for Chinese government to establish long-term ecological civilization, particularly for northeastern China which is recognized as a typical agglomeration area of resources cities. In this study, we establish a three-layer index system consisting of a comprehensive layer, systemic layer, and variable layer, and including 22 indicators which are grouped into economic, social and environmental subsystems. After that, the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method was applied to measure and rank the sustainability of the selected 15 typical resource-based cities in northeast China, and then a GIS (Geographical Information System) technique based on the software of SuperMap was applied to map the sustainability in terms of the spatial effects among these cities. The results reveal that a unilateral improvement of a subsystem did not mean an improvement or contribution to whole system. In detail, during the past 15 years from 2000 to 2015, the comprehensive sustainability of resource-based cities in Northeastern China shows a declining trend in the mass, and the sustainability of the economic subsystem shows increase; the sustainability of the social system remains stable, while the environmental subsystem shows decrease. These situations might result from policy interventions during the past 15 years, therefore, promoting the sustainability of resource-based cities needs a historical approach, which should focus on the coordinated development of its economic, social, and environmental subsystems.