6. Conclusion
The reduction of CO2 emissions to mitigate the impacts of global
warming has become an urgent issue globally. Bearing this in mind,
the authors of this study have highlighted the significance of taking
social costs of CO2 emissions into consideration in supply chain
management, and have presented a generic mathematical model
considering both operational costs and social costs of CO2 emissions
to assist decision makers in supply chain management.
The inclusion of social costs in supply chain management could
allow decision-makers of enterprises to estimate more practical
costs in the operations of supply chain networks. The proposed
model has the potential to become a useful tool that facilitates the
understanding of optimal supply chain strategies with consideration
for social costs of CO2 and other wastes emissions resulting
from operating such a supply chain network. In addition, the proposed
model could serve as a useful reference for legislators in
estimating the monetary loss resulting from CO2 emissions in the
operations of supply chain networks. Furthermore, the legislators
could refer this model to propose legislations to enforce the enterprises
to pay for the social costs of CO2 emissions. Therefore, the
enterprises must invest money in reducing CO2 emissions from the
operations of such supply chain networks.
Although the proposed mathematical model has made a noteworthy
contribution to current studies on SSCM, it also has its
limitations. First, the estimation that we did regarding the calculation
of the social costs of CO2 emissions in supply chain management
can only be seen as tentative at this preliminary stage.
Second, as showed in our illustrative case wherewe took an apparel
manufacturing supply chain network as an example, further studies
can apply this model to other industries. Third, the proposed model
is particularly suitable for the multinational enterprises that own
many manufacturing plants located in different countries. Last, the
social costs of other wastes emissions caused by the operations of
supply chain network could be considered in further studies.