Tactical supply chain planning under a carbon tax policy scheme: A case study

Greenhouse gas emissions are receiving greater scrutiny in many countries due to international forces to reduce anthropogenic global climate change. Industry and their supply chains represent a major source of these emissions. This paper presents a tactical supply chain planning model that integrates economic and carbon emission objectives under a carbon tax policy scheme. A modified Cross-Entropy solution method is adopted to solve the proposed nonlinear supply chain planning model. Numerical experiments are completed utilizing data from an actual organization in Australia where a carbon tax is in operation. The analyses of the numerical results provide important organizational and policy insights on (1) the financial and emissions reduction impacts of a carbon tax at the tactical planning level, (2) the use of cost/emission tradeoff analysis for making informed decisions on investments, (3) the way to price carbon for maximum environmental returns per dollar increase in supply chain cost. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.