A Review on Triple Bottom Line Optimization for Sustainability in Supply Chains

Abstract

After the World War II, global businesses have been grown incredibly. Parallel to this remarkable growth, human needs and wants have also been expanded. These needs and wants are based on goods and services. Since organizations particularly manufacturing firms seek to minimize the cost and maximize the income (profit) through their supply chain processes, environmental (planet) and social (people) obligations have been neglected either by directly or by indirectly. However the Sustainability is practices and development that meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, Principal aim of the sustainability in supply chain (SSC) is to achieve economic prosperity, environmental cleanness, and societal well-being (or optimization of Triple Bottom Line) simultaneously along the supply chain. This study reviews literature to scrutinize the research efforts make on optimization of Triple Bottom Line (TBL) i.e. economic, environmental, and social dimensions for achieving SSC. Content analysis was carried out using reviewed most relevant 41 journal articles published in emerald, and Science Direct websites on Sustainable Supply Chain Management and on TBL issues to categorize the research efforts done on the area of SSC. The study found that more studies were carried out related to green or environmental-friendly supply chains and studies focus on social dimension are lacking. However, very few studies have been carried out on optimization of TBL for the purpose of achieving SSC. Therefore, future researches concentrating on social factor and on whole three dimensions are deemed necessary to be carried out.