Modelling the carbon emission of supply chain based on enterprise-level data | Zeyu Wang

Field | Discipline

• Sustainable Supply Chain Management
• Network Theory

Expertise

• Input - Output Analysis
• Carbon Emission Accounting Modelling
• Complex Network Analysis

Summary

Over the last decade, the efforts against global warming caused by greenhouse gas emission have become one of main hotspots of international debate. Firms worldwide are currently investigating ways to decarbonize global supply chains as they are increasingly emerging into the largest emission source with emission-intensive activities including exploitation, manufacture, transportation, and products-consumption. Although the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol standards have been established to harmonize disparate criteria measuring firms’ environmental impact, a prevailing challenge persists as a consensus on the most suitable accounting methodology for reporting scope 3 emissions among most firms due to the data unavailability. Moreover, the precision of calculations is invariably susceptible to the dearth of data and the ambiguity of modeling boundaries. This research’s contribution is to fill in the gap of the nexus between global supply chain and complexity network, build the bridge connecting enterprises emission and global supply chain based on Panjiva database. A comprehensive and multi-tiers framework for clarifying the structure and interaction of companies from upstream suppliers to downstream consumers along the global supply chain will be ultimately established, providing decision-makers with references to improve the data availability and methodological applicability and therefore facilitate the reporting of scope 3 emission to further explore effective sustainable supply chain strategies.

This study aims to establish a comprehensive and multi-tiers framework that enables to illustrate the interaction and complex relationship between companies engaged in the global supply chain, so as to provide valuable references for augmenting the processes of data collection and quality improvement, further providing the data support for reporting of scope 3 emission from companies. We first synthesize the existing literature specific to scope 3 emissions and iteratively figure out to extent companies are able to report their emission under its own control. Then we develop a global supply chain network based on mutual relations among firms such as trade dealing and stock share and other quantitative variables. Finally, we create a holistic system that categorize the companies into different levels determined by the degree distribution, which enables us to further explore the promising mechanism for companies to report their scope 3 emission and other moderators of key relationships.

Supervision by

• Promotor: Prof. dr. K.S. (Klaus) Hubacek | Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.
• Co-promotor: Dr. F. (Franco) Ruzzenenti | Integrated Research on Energy, Environment and Society - IREES | ESRIG, University of Groningen.

More information and contact details can be found on the personal profile of Zeyu Wang