Measuring the environmental sustainability of supply chain for Indian steel industry: A graph theoretic approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to quantify, evaluate and compare the environmental sustainability performance of supply chain for Indian steel industry using graph theoretic approach (GTA). Design/methodology/approach Broadly 12 environmental sustainability enablers (ESEs) were identified and they were classified into four significant categories (SCs). Featuring these SCs and ESEs under each SC, a methodology was proposed using GTA for evaluating the environmental sustainability performance of Indian steel companies. The analysis was further extended to compare the results with performance in different situations and accordingly set the future targets. Findings In order to demonstrate the utility of the proposed methodology, it was applied to an Indian steel company. The results obtained indicated that there have been significant growths achieved in the environmental sustainability performance over a period of five years. It was also found that a performance gap exists and it will reach the target value after two years. Practical implications The proposed approach is aimed at providing a procedure for evaluating the environmental sustainability performance. This study is an attempt to assist a steel industry to assess its sustainability program and accordingly define its course of actions. Originality/value Although many issues related to environmental sustainability have been widely recognized and studied, there are no specific studies available in the literature to assess the environmental sustainability performance along the timeline. The proposed model has the ability to capture the performance and interdependencies of SCs, ESEs under each SC and also to quantify the environmental sustainability performance along the timeline.