A firm-based perspective of the notion of “Carbon neutrality”: The role of supply chain mapping

Carbon neutral supply chains are also more agile and resilient and help firms to capitalize on the opportunities for reducing overall supply chain cost. The chapter brings forward supply chain mapping as a strategy for a firm to achieving the carbon neutrality targets. The overarching argument of the chapter is that firms cannot attain the carbon neutrality without effectively focusing upon the Scope 3 emissions. Since Scope 3 emissions are primarily related to the supply chain of a firm, it is essential to adopt supply chain focused approaches to reduce these emissions. In this context, SC mapping comes into play, which, by helping firms to look into its supply chain processes, activities, and entities in the real-time, help to take measure for reducing the emissions. It is argued that supply chain mapping provides end-to-end supply chain visibility—from nth tier suppliers to the nth tier customers—and highlights the wastes, emissions, delays, and other hiccups in the extended supply chain. This visualization and identification help a firm to target emissions related to all three scopes (1, 2, and 3).