Supply Chain Risk and Resilience Management as Enablers for Sustainability

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how uncertain our world is and, importantly, how vulnerable our operations and supply chains are—from empty supermarket shelves, to shortages of personal protective equipment and microchips, to problems with the supply and recycling of cardboard boxes, and increased food waste in restaurants due to mandatory closures. Beyond COVID-19, newspaper headlines remind us on a daily basis of the consequences of risks and the globally connected nature of our world. Oil price rises due to the war in Ukraine, staff shortages in Dutch and German airports in the summer of 2022, and the Deep Water Horizon Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are just a few of the many examples. From these examples we see that supply chain disruptions can affect any of the three dimensions of sustainability—economic, environmental, and/or social—meaning the concepts of supply chain risk and sustainability are closely linked. That is, organizations need to manage sustainability related risks while any given risk can also threaten a company’s long-term sustainability. This chapter examines how supply chain risk management practices support organizations and their supply chains in achieving long-term economic, environmental and/or social sustainability. We examine the process of supply chain risk management—including risk identification, assessment and analysis—and the risk management strategies available to organizations and supply chains. Further, we show how supply chain resilience extends traditional supply chain risk management by enabling organizations and their supply chains to deal with unforeseeable events.