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The purpose of this paper is to describe the role that the University of Toronto has had in helping to establish a Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development in Toronto, Canada. The way in which the RCE initiative has helped to move forward the university's own five‐year plan will also be discussed.

The paper begins with a historical overview of the development of the Toronto RCE, acknowledging the diverse range of NGO, governmental and educational institutions that collaborate within this network. It then describes how the RCE initiative is helping to advance the objectives of the University of Toronto's own five‐year plan. Finally, the paper details how the University of Toronto has supported specific projects of the RCE, and where it hopes to help to lead the RCE into the next phase of its development.

In addition to presenting a case study of an RCE, the paper includes critical discussion of broader conceptual issues, such as how one might best interpret “interdisciplinarity” and community “outreach” in a university setting.

The UN University's RCE is, in itself, a highly original and valuable initiative. The paper describes one of these networks and its own, unique focus, while also drawing conclusions about how universities might more actively engage with community partners to advance environmental awareness.

The main purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive review and critical insights of the application of fuzzy methods in modeling, assessing and understanding the various aspects of green and sustainable supply chains (SSCs).

The present study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis of 252 research articles. This study employs various tools such as VOSviewer version 1.6.10, Publish or Perish, Mendeley and Excel that aid in descriptive analysis, bibliometric analysis and network visualization. These tools have been used for performing citation analysis, top authors' analysis, co-occurrence of keywords, cluster and content analysis.

The authors have divided the literature into seven application areas and discussed detailed insights. This study has observed that research in the social sustainability area, including various issues like health and safety, labor rights, discrimination, etc. is scarce. Integration of the Industry 4.0 technologies like blockchain, big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) with the sustainable and green supply chain (GSC) is a promising field for future research.

The authors' contribution primarily lies in providing the integrated framework which shows the changing trends in the use of fuzzy methods in the sustainability area classifying and consolidating green and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature in seven major areas where fuzzy methods are predominantly applied. These areas have been obtained after the analysis of clusters and content analysis of the literature presenting key insights from the past and developing the conceptual framework for future research studies.

This study focuses on a specific method of meat production that involves carcass purchase and meat production by packing facilities with a novel two-stage model that simultaneously considers location-routing and inventory-production operating decisions. The considered problem aims to reduce variable and fixed transportation and production costs, inventory holding cost and the cost of opening cold storage facilities.

The proposed model encompasses a two-stage model consisting of a single-echelon and a three-echelon many-to-many network with deterministic demand. The proposed model is a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model which was tested with the general algebraic modelling system (GAMS) software for a real-world case study in Iran. A sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the effect of retailers' holding capacity and supply capacity at carcass suppliers.

In this research, the number of products transferred at each level, the number of products held, the quantity of red meat produced, the required cold storage facilities and the required vehicles were optimally specified. The outcomes indicated a two percent (2%) decrease in cost per kg of red meat. Eventually, the outcomes of the first and second sensitivity analysis indicated that reduced retailers' holding capacity and supply capacity at carcass suppliers leads to higher total costs.

This research proposes a novel multi-period location-inventory-routing problem for the red meat supply chain in an emerging economy with a heterogeneous vehicle fleet and logistics decisions. The proposed model is presented in two stages and four-echelon including carcass suppliers, packing facilities, cold storage facilities and retailers.

This paper aims to address the supplier selection problem based on a developed framework capturing the essence of the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model, sustainability and providing services to customers. Specifically, the authors consider planning, manufacturing, delivery, sustainability and customer service attributes to evaluate and select suppliers.

Relevant literature is reviewed, a framework capturing the essence of major supply chain functions was developed and suitable measurement attributes were identified. An integrated fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution method are employed to obtain the final ranking of the attributes and suppliers. The proposed methodology is illustrated through a real case of an Indian automobile company.

The authors observed that planning, manufacturing, customer service, sustainability and delivery are preferred in decreasing order to select component suppliers for an automotive company. The impact of suppliers on planning and manufacturing is most important to consider while assessing suppliers. Interestingly, concerns about sustainability and delivery are the least cared factors when selecting suppliers. The top five criteria contain measures of operational efficiency rather than purchasing cost.

This paper proposes and demonstrates a supplier selection framework harmonizing supply chain functions of the SCOR model, sustainability and customers service that adds a valuable wing to literature that expounds on the connection of purchasing strategy to corporate strategy. A case study in an automotive company throws unique and valuable managerial implications for purchasing and supply chain performance.

Supply chains’ (SCs’) sustainability practices and recovery strategies are attaining popularity in academia and industries to improve the resilience of the SCs and to manage large-scale disruptions. The global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 has raised the question of the sustainability of essential health-care products’ SCs of Bangladesh. It is an essential avenue for making the life of people safe and secure. Despite its importance, most of the health-care SCs in Bangladesh are struggling to meet the demand of its nation due to capacity shortage, technological backwardness of the manufacturers, delivery capacity shortages and less advanced forecasting capabilities. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the key performance indicators (KPIs) of a sustainable recovery strategy in the context of health-care SCs considering the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study used a dynamic method named graph theory and matrix approach to evaluate the most critical KPIs of a sustainable recovery strategy in the context of Bangladeshi health-care SCs.

The result revealed that dynamic forecasting and planning with a smooth delivery and distribution support system, production capacity diversification and having alternative or multiple suppliers during extraordinary disruptions may aid in the sustainability of the health-care SCs in Bangladesh.

This study is unique as no previous study has identified and examined the sustainable recovery strategy perspective KPIs considering the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of Bangladeshi health-care SCs. This study will also add value by guiding decision-makers of the health-care SCs of Bangladesh to adopt strategies toward the sustainability of SCs.

The business enterprises are increasingly focusing on buying and supplying of products and services in a manner to reduce the adverse impacts on the environment, society, and economy. In view of the above, the concept of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has received attention of the industry and academia due to its importance on environmental, social and corporate responsibility through economic performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The structured literature review attempts to map the various theories in the SSCM literature from the perspectives of economic performance, environmental dimensions, and social values and ethics.

As supply management is vital for enhancing organizational competitiveness, the present work attempts to investigate the theoretical perspectives in SSCM to develop an understanding of the current research activities and future potentials.

This work aims to gain a number of valid insights for the practitioners and the researchers. It also focuses on the perspectives of governance mechanisms for successful implementation SSCM practices in the business enterprises.

As the theory building initiatives with implications on the conceptualization of SSCM is limited in literature, this work has also been able to identify the trends and relevant research gaps to define the potential areas for future research.

The existence of the advertising delay effect and its impact on supply chain operations have been demonstrated in the current study. Therefore, this study develops a timely inventory control strategy for the fresh produce supply chain to address the advertising delay effect in the fresh produce supply chain.

This study proposes a game model based on the Nerlove-Arrow time delay differential equation and Pontryagin's maximum principle. Through comparative analyses of the optimal equilibrium strategies, the authors compare the optimal equilibrium strategies, product goodwill and optimal inventory trajectories for suppliers and retailers under secondary replenishment decisions and decentralized decisions.

The authors find that (1) Only when the sales cycle meets certain conditions can the overall profit of the supply chain under the secondary replenishment decision be greater than that under the decentralized decision. As the price markup coefficient increases, the total profit of the supply chain first increases and then decreases. (2) With the increase in the delay time, the replenishment quantity during the initial period gradually decreases. After the delay time elapses, the inventory depletion rate under secondary replenishment decisions is faster than that under decentralized decision-making. (3) Although there is a continuously increasing maximum value of product goodwill with the increase in delay time, it becomes difficult to achieve this value for longer delays.

The authors’ findings provide a theoretical basis for supply chain members of fresh agricultural products to select replenishment and inventory control strategies when adopting different levels of delay in advertising marketing.

Firstly, this paper explains the impact of advertising delay effect on fresh produce supply chain from a dynamic perspective, and secondly, it provides guidance on advertising formulation and inventory replenishment for fresh produce retailers under the influence of advertising delay effect.

This paper aims to explore the potential of blockchain technology (BT) to support the operational excellence in perishable food supply chain (PFSC) during outbreaks, by doing use-case analysis.

A systematic literature review is performed to determine the dimensions of operational excellence in the food supply chain (FSC), then a single use-case analysis is conducted to explore the potential of blockchain in order to achieve operational excellence for PFSC during the pandemics by applying context, interventions, mechanism and outcomes (CIMO) logic.

The findings of this study reveal that blockchain capabilities such as immutability and transparency, visibility, traceability, integration and interoperability, disintermediation and decentralisation, smart contracts and consensus mechanism provide better sustainable operational excellence outcomes for PFSCs to be more responsive, flexible, efficient and collaborative to cope with the impacts of COVID-19.

This research employs only one real case with multiple PFSC participants. Statistical generalisation is not possible at this stage of the research. However, the findings are not restricted to this single use-case.

This study provides a research direction to explore the potential of BT to achieve operational excellence in the PFSC during outbreaks and generates prescriptive knowledge for better managerial decision-making across the PFSC during outbreaks.

This research conducts semi-structured interviews with different participants in one blockchain ecosystem to understand multiple participants' perspectives of operational excellence within PFSC.

Existing supply chain (SC) performance models are not able to cope with the potential of intensive SC digitalisation and establish a relationship between decisions and decision criteria. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated knowledge-based system (KBS) that creates a link between decisions and decision criteria (attributes) and evaluates the overall SC performance.

The proposed KBS is grounded on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP), which establishes a relationship between short-term and long-term decisions and SC performance criteria (short-term and long-term) for accurate and integrated Overall SC performance evaluation.

The proposed KBS evaluates the overall SC performance, establishes a relationship between decisions (long-term and short-term) and decision criteria of SC functions and provides decision makers with a view of the impact of their short-term or long-term decisions on overall SC performance. The proposed system was implemented in a case company where the authors were able to develop a SC performance monitoring dashboard for the company’s top managers and operational managers.

The proposed KBS assists organisations and decision makers in evaluating their overall SC performance and helps in identifying underperforming SC functions and their associated criteria. It may also be considered as a tool for benchmarking SC performance against competitors. It can efficiently point to improvement directions and help decision makers improve overall SC performance.

The proposed KBS provides a holistic and integrated approach, establishes a relationship between decisions and decision criteria and evaluates overall SC performance, which is one of the main limitations in existing supply chain performance measurement systems.

World over organizations are focusing on sustainable goals, where along with economic success their role in protecting the planet and people are becoming important. Whilst transforming the supply chain into a sustainable one, there would be some barriers which might hinder this process. This paper aims to study these barriers in the context of the electronics industry so that organizations can better implement sustainable supply chain programs.

In this research, barriers affecting sustainability implementation in the electronics supply chain are shortlisted from literature review and experts’ opinion. Using the combined methodology of Grey DEMATEL, the causal factors, the effect factors and degree of prominence of barriers is found out. The overall relationship among barriers is established by a diagraph. Sensitivity analysis is performed to check the robustness of the results.

It is found that lack of regulation and guidance from authorities is the primary causal barrier affecting operations of sustainable supply chain management. There are five barriers which fall in the influenced group and among them, complexity in measuring and monitoring sustainability practices has the largest net effect value on the implementation of a sustainable supply chain. The barrier having the highest correlation with other barriers is the high cost for disposal of hazardous wastes. The implications of these findings on managers and academicians is explored in the study.

In this research, the number of barriers shortlisted is limited to 11 in the context of the electronics supply chain. More factors could be added in future research based on the industry being studied.

The research analyses 11 barriers under categories of policy, technology, financial and human resources in the Indian electronics industry by evaluating the cause and effect group of barriers. These results can guide policymakers of the electronic sector and industry for mitigating barriers during the implementation of sustainable programs.