Sustainability assessment in supply chain network design: the application of sustainable policies in the agrifood sector

Assessing sustainability performance is crucial for ensuring industries align with sustainable development goals, contributing to society’s well-being. This paper investigates the impact of sustainable policies on supply chain design, examining how such policies drive industries to adopt greener production technologies, impose production caps, or relocate facilities. Unlike studies focused on individual companies, this research evaluates these impacts at the industry level. It introduces an optimization framework as an ex-ante sustainability assessment tool to compare industry performance in a business-as-usual scenario versus one with sustainable policy implementation. The model considers economic, environmental, and social factors, using the Time-to-Sustainability optimization approach to calculate the minimum time needed to achieve sustainability goals. This framework is instrumental in evaluating the effects of sustainability policies like the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on supply chains. The findings offer valuable decision support for policymakers crafting strategic sustainability pathways. A case study on Colombia’s dairy industry, using data from Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions for the country’s low-carbon strategy, highlights challenges in transforming the industry. The proposed framework aims to contribute to and assess sustainable agricultural production, but it is general in scope and can be adapted to other industries with appropriate sustainability goals.