Sustainability Analysis

Sustainability is a growing concern in the design and operation of many production and supply chain activities. Next to the traditional economic concerns, companies therefore also increasingly consider the environmental and social impacts of their activities. To support these initiatives, and to improve the related decision-making processes, a solid foundation of quantitative methods for sustainability analysis is required.
In this course, you learn how to systematically and quantitatively evaluate sustainability, and to optimise and redesign sustainable supply chains. Definitions and concepts of sustainability are explained and discussed. You will learn how to quantify the sustainability of products and production chains, both for existing supply chains as well as for novel, re-designed, or circular supply chains. Such sustainability assessment involves the selection of key sustainability performance indicators, the collection of data (partially from databases), the quantification of sustainability performance indicators, the benchmarking of supply chains using methods like data envelopment analysis, and the comparison and discussion of the results leading to re-design strategies. In this final comparison and discussion special attention will be given to multi-objective evaluation using (quantitative) operations management methods and stakeholder inclusion.
The course is intended for all MSc students from Wageningen with an interest in sustainability and an affinity with (decision-sciences-based) quantitative analysis. The quantitative approach to sustainability analysis is a key characteristic of the course and students with a background in operations research/decision science and/or process engineering are more likely to successfully complete this course. The course load is high, therefore you will not be able to combine this course with another course in period 3.
Due to the software that we use, the course has a maximum number of students that can participate. We expect that everyone who is selected for the course is 'on board', i.e. will prepare using the self-test and online learning modules, and will actively participate in the course, including software practical and case study. Registrations after the deadline (which is one week before regular course registration) will not be accepted.
Commonly, students are enrolled in the Master Programmes Biobased Sciences, Management Economics and Consumer Sciences (track ORL), Biosystems Engineering, or Biotechnology or Environmental Sciences.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• explain definitions related to sustainability;
• collect data from databases for sustainability analysis;
• identify and quantify key sustainability performance indicators and interpret the results from sustainability assessments;
• perform a multi-objective sustainability evaluation;
• analyse and optimize re-design strategies using quantitative operations management methods;
• report a sustainability analysis.

Assumed Knowledge:
Preferably students have taken the course ORL20306 Decision Science 1 or similar, and in addition the course BMO26806 Circular Economy or the minor Biobased Sciences (WUBBS), or have general knowledge on the biobased and circular economy.
At the start of the course students take a self-test (duration, 30 minutes). Advice is given on which topics to study in more depth in preparation modules available on Brightspace. This preparation is done to ensure that all students have a common understanding of basic concepts related to sustainability, and are able to perform basic calculations.