Term Paper: Interim Report on Modelling approaches in Sustainable Supply chain ManagementIntroductionThe world commission on environment and development puts sustainability as The needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs [1]. The term paper will dwell into the concept of sustainable supply chain management and various approaches to model sustainable supply chain management. The interrelationships among society, the environment, and economic/industrial development are integral to the concept of sustainability[2] . Also the relationship between the three dimensions are analysed in the paper. Four modelling approaches consisting of various elements and dimensions will be covered by performing a literature review of most cited articles within each category.The four categories are :1. Life-cycle assessment based models2. Equilibrium models3. Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM)4. Applications of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP).Modelling ApproachesModelling of a sustainable supply chain involves research where models of causal relationships between control variables and performance variables are developed, analysed and tested[footnoteRef:1]. There are basically four different approaches to modelling a sustainable supply chain. These are [1: [1] Wced. Our common future. NewYork: Oxford University Press; 1987. [2] Margot J. Hutchins, John W. Sutherland ,An exploration of measures of social sustainability and their application to supply chain decisions, Journal of cleaner production ]

a) Economic dimension: This involves economic issues and includes aspects of costs and revenues. Researches in this dimension follow a Life cycle Assessment (LCA) approach.b) Environmental dimension: Here energy demand and CO2 emissions are chief criteria under observation. Here too one can find LCA based approaches towards modelling the sustainable supply chain.c) Social dimension: The social dimension includes aspects such as Corporate Social Responsibility and the relationship which business needs to have with society including aspects such as income redistribution, unemployment etc.d) Integration of all dimensions: This is perhaps the most important approach to model a sustainable supply chain. Most often, this studies aspects of trade-offs between the three dimensions[footnoteRef:2] [2: Seuring, Stefan. "A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management."Decision support systems54, no. 4 (2013): 1513-1520.]

The term paper would cover these four aspects. Once this is done, suggestions about future research in the area of sustainable supply chains will follow.