sust.biz: Sustainable Value Chains - The Lifeline of Sustainable Business

Michael D’heur ()
Additional contact information
Michael D’heur: sust.biz GmbH & Co. KG

A chapter in Sustainable Value Chain Management, 2026, pp 1-92 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The question of how businesses can truly integrate sustainability in products and supply chains has gained a lot of attention since the first edition of this book was published in 2015. Today, it is no longer a question if a business should be sustainable, but rather how fast the transformation toward sustainable business is happening. Heightened awareness of greenwashing and tighter regulations contribute to the expectation that sustainability needs to be real and trustworthy. Sustainability has moved from a context activity to a core element of the business strategy. However, new challenges have emerged that need to be considered to master the transformation toward sustainable business, where products are designed for circularity, being produced in carbon-neutral value chains, and being returned to natural or technical cycles at the end of their useful life. A future-fit business needs to be resilient, intelligent, sustainable, and efficient at the same time. While the transformation path to this state is still foggy for many companies, one thing is clear: Sustainable value chains are the lifeline of sustainable business. The business strategy is manifested in the value chain, i.e., in the products that are created and the global supply chains that are operated. They enable value creation within planetary boundaries. Sustainable value chains syndicate the areas of sustainability, product development, supply chain planning, manufacturing, service delivery, and collaboration with partners into a coherent operating model. Based on this operating model, all functions of a business can be engaged in the transformation toward sustainable business and economic, social, and environmental value creation. This chapter describes the drivers for change, the value that is created, and the building blocks of a business operating system with sustainable value chains as backbone and enabler for sustainable business. In addition, a practical method is proposed to accelerate the transformation toward sustainable business.

Keywords: Business operating system; Sustainability; Decarbonization; Circular economy; Artificial intelligence; Value chain; Supply chain management; Resilience; Intelligence; Efficiency; Transformation; Sustainable business (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:csrchp:978-3-032-13293-2_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783032132932

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-13293-2_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().