CSR-tools and their application in product declarations and supply chain management

Current patterns of industrial production and consumption are impacting the environment through local pollution, resource depletion, climate change and loss of habitat and biodiversity, as well as health and safety. This have created today’s obligation to change techniques as well as attitudes. Within the framework of Sustainable Development (SD) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) appears as one concept to address environmental and social responsibility challenges. One way of addressing CSR issues in extended supply network can be as part of supply chain management (SCM) in combination with several environmental management tools. The indicator framework, based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) can further provide implementation possibilities to incorporate CSR in the extended supply chain. Sustainable product information can be presented by environmental product declarations (EPDs). The presentation will focus on how CSR can be integrated in SCM tools, covering upstream activities from resource extraction, pre-production to finished products, but also expanding to downstream activities including information from the producer to different customers and other stakeholders. The presentation will be based upon different system models of value chains and supply networks, and exemplified by corporate case studies showing the application of SCM-tools in the corporate efforts to address their most relevant CSR issues.