Sustainable Supply Chains: Innovations in Closed-Loop Systems and Circular Economy Practices

Dear Colleagues,

The circular economy is an advanced mode of production aiming to implement sustainable development, and is also an important way to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. The essence of the circular economy is the achievement of a virtuous circle in the ecosystem, in production processes, and in terms of economic growth through technological processes without pollution and ecological harm. Its achievement requires the use of ecological and economic laws to guide the economic activities of human society, so that the economic system and the natural ecological system are coordinated, unified, and harmonious.

In contrast to traditional modes of production, wherein the flow of materials from resource to product, consumption and to end of life is unidirectional and open-loop, sustainable supply chains adopt modes of reversible circulation, multi-directional transformation, and multi-echelon utilization with far lower emissions. This approach eliminates excessive consumption of natural resources and strives to achieve "zero emissions" of pollutants. It can effectively reduce carbon emissions across a product’s life cycle.

Circular production also requires governments to provide policy support, technical assistance, and financial subsidies for the promotion of clean technologies. Appropriate environmental policies help to remove various obstacles to the implementation of circular production, and also help to promote mechanisms of extended producer responsibility to improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and to expand public participation in carbon reduction through CDM, carbon trading mechanisms, forestry carbon sequestration, etc.

This Special Issue of Sustainability focuses on the current state of knowledge on links between circular production and low-carbon development. New research papers, reviews, case reports, and conference papers are welcome, as are papers dealing with new approaches to attain low-carbon development, appropriate production design to achieve optimal economic or environmental efficiency, and policy assessments. Other accepted types of manuscript include methodological papers, position papers, brief reports, and commentaries.

We also welcome manuscripts from different disciplines, including operation management, closed-supply chains, uncertain programming, multi-echelon utilization, and operations and optimization. Here are some examples of topics that could be addressed in this Special Issue:

• Circular production and close-loop supply chain management;
• Climate change and carbon emissions;
• Operation management in closed-loop supply chains;
• Reverse logistics and multi-echelon utilization;
• Environmental assessment and low-carbon policy-making;
• End-of-life product recycling and remanufacturing;
• Decision-making in closed-supply chains;
• Economic and environmental efficiency assessment and multi-objective optimization.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Haolan Liao
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• low-carbon
• sustainability
• circular economics
• environmental economics
• remanufacture
• closed-loop supply chains
• operation management
• carbon neutrality