A Competency Model for Green Supply Chain Talents and Its Instructional Transformation under the “Dual Carbon” Goals: A Theoretical Framework and Implementation Pathway

Background: The “dual carbon” goals have positioned green and low-carbon transformation as a core strategy for China’s economic and social development, bringing supply chain management to the forefront of this shift. A significant green competency gap has emerged between the output of university programs and industry demands. Enterprises increasingly require professionals skilled in carbon data management, carbon-constrained decision-making, and circular supply chain design, whereas existing curricula remain focused on traditional operational efficiency, leaving the integration of low-carbon competencies fragmented and superficial. Methods: This study engages in a theoretical dialogue with international sustainability education frameworks and adopts a competency-based education perspective. Through this lens, it constructs a comprehensive competency model for green supply chain talents and derives a systematic instructional transformation pathway. Results: The study proposes a four-dimensional competency model consisting of a low-carbon knowledge foundation, carbon intelligence decision-making competency, systems synergy mindset, and green ethics and integrity. These dimensions collectively integrate a cognitive base, decision-making tools, a systemic perspective, and a value core. Building on this model, a five-level implementation pathway is expounded: carbon competency mapping in the curriculum system, building a project-based learning chain, constructing an industry-education integration experiential field, reforming multiple assessments, and establishing a teacher professional development community on carbon competencies. Conclusions: Cultivating green supply chain talents is not fundamentally about adding courses with green labels, but about restructuring the competency genes at the base of the ability structure. This entails making carbon data, carbon analysis, and carbon ethics intrinsic analytical dimensions through which future supply chain professionals examine problems, analyze organizational contexts, and make decisions.