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Big data poses as a valuable opportunity to further improve decision making in supply chain management (SCM). However, the understanding and application of big data seem rather elusive and only partially explored. The purpose of this paper is to create further guidance in understanding big data and to explore applications from a business process perspective.

This paper is based on a sequential mixed-method. First, a Delphi study was designed to gain insights regarding the terminology of big data and to identify and rank applications of big data in SCM using an adjusted supply chain operations reference (SCOR) process framework. This was followed by a questionnaire-survey among supply chain executives to elucidate the Delphi study findings and to assess the practical use of big data.

First, big data terminology seems to be more about data collection than of data management and data utilization. Second, the application of big data is most applicable for logistics, service and planning processes than of sourcing, manufacturing and return. Third, supply chain executives seem to have a slow adoption of big data.

The Delphi study is explorative by nature and the questionnaire-survey rather small in scale; therefore, findings have limited generalizability.

The findings can help supply chain managers gain a clearer understanding of the domain of big data and guide them in where to deploy big data initiatives.

This study is the first to assess big data in the SCOR process framework and to rank applications of big data as a mean to guide the SCM community to where big data is most beneficial.

Over the last decade, multiple initiatives have been undertaken to learn how to capture the carbon footprint of a supply chain at a product level. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the process of standardization to secure consistency of product carbon footprinting (PCF) and to outline how the current developments in PCF support the need for a standardized method to measure and report environmental performance in supply chains.

This paper is based on a literature review and a review of international standards for PCF which brings knowledge of PCF to the existing literature of green supply chain management.

The multiple initiatives for standardization each improve the understanding of standardized methods of conducting PCF. At the same time, however, important differences exist between the standards in terms of the modelling framework to be used when conducting a PCF, and a paradox exists concerning methods for securing future standardization of PCF.

Standards for evaluating emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in supply chains are evaluated without consideration of other environmental impacts. In addition, the research only compares international standards, thereby excluding national initiatives.

Standardization efforts can be expected to shape the future practice of measuring emission of GHGs in companies and supply chains which provides a framework for reducing impacts.

Papers that outline the standardization process for PCF have been examined, but this paper adds value by categorizing the field, outlining the latest standards, and by being the first paper to compare standards for PCF on selected criteria and identify gaps.

The need for innovations to achieve economically viable and green supply chains has been illuminated in recent literature. Closed‐loop supply chains are part of green supply chain management and include traditional forward supply‐chain activities as well as additional activities of the reverse supply chain. Extant supply chain literature calls for a chain perspective in order to avoid sub‐optimization in the chain since changes at one stage can affect the performance at other stages. The purpose of the paper is to analyze how implementation of green supply chain innovations can enhance value offerings along the supply chain.

This research is based on an explorative, single‐embedded case study of a food supply chain. The case is concerned with implementation of green supply chain innovation in terms of biogas technology. The single case comprises four actors in the food supply chain: a retailer, an industrial bakery, a mill, and a farmer. Data collection is based on semi‐structured interviews with persons responsible for sustainability in the respective companies.

The case demonstrates that in order to reach the full potential of a green supply chain innovation, the different supply chain actors must be included. What in isolation of one company's perspective is perceived as a waste can be transformed to a value when the problem area is analysed from a chain perspective.

The paper is based on a single case study that does not provide static generalizations, and it represents the first step on a road to building new theory about green supply chain innovations. Future research can expand the findings by elaborating upon cases of other types of supply chains and supply chain innovations.

The perception of waste in a supply chain can be changed through green supply chain innovations. This case illustrates how obsolete food products at the retail level, which traditionally have been perceived as a waste product with related discarding costs, can be regarded as a valued input by implementation of biogas technology at the industrial bakery company. As a result, other food supply chains can investigate similar solutions.

The paper provides a case that visualizes how value offerings along a food supply chain can be chased through green supply chain innovations. Furthermore, the paper applies a supply chain perspective not only conceptually but also empirically. By focusing on the interfaces between each main actor in the supply chain, this paper contributes to existing research with valuable knowledge of inter‐organizational issues related to challenges of supply chain innovation.