Development of composite sustainability performance index for steel industry

The steel companies are becoming increasingly aware about the sustainability challenges. In order to become a responsible corporate citizen, the industry has responded to these challenges through adoption of pillars of sustainability. The industry has made the beginning with identification of sustainability indicators. The indicators have been developed specifically for steel industry. Generally, it is quite difficult to evaluate the performance of company on the basis of large number of sustainability indicators. Integration of key sustainability indicators is quite essential for decision-making. Composite indicators are an innovative approach to evaluate sustainable performance. This paper presents a method for development of composite sustainability performance index (CSPI) that addresses the sustainable performance of steel industries along all the three pillars of sustainability—economic, environmental and societal. Organizational governance and technical aspects have also been considered fourth and fifth dimensions of sustainability.The objective of this paper is to introduce sustainability and to present a conceptual decision model, using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to assist in evaluating the impact of an organization's sustainability performance. AHP has been used to determine the weights at various levels. Sub-indices have been evaluated and aggregated to form CSPI. The effectiveness of the proposed model is evaluated in a case study for a major steel company in India.     

Companies on the Scale

A determination of the sustainability performance of a company ought to fulfill certain requirements. It has to take into account the direct impacts from on-site processes as well as indirect impacts embodied in the supply chains of a company. This life cycle thinking is the common theme of popular footprint analyses, such as carbon, ecological, or water footprinting. All these indicators can be incorporated into one common and consistent accounting and reporting scheme based on economic input−output analysis, extended with data from all three dimensions of sustainability. We introduce such a triple-bottom-line accounting framework and software tool and apply it in a case study of a small company in the United Kingdom. Results include absolute impacts and relative intensities of indicators and are put into perspective by a benchmark comparison with the economic sector to which the company belongs. Production layer decomposition and structural path analysis provide further valuable detail, identifying the amount and location of triple-bottom-line impacts in individual upstream supply chains. The concept of shared responsibility has been applied to avoid double-counting and noncomparability of results. Although in this work we employ a single-region model for the sake of illustration, we discuss how to extend our ideas to international supply chains. We discuss the limitations of the approach and the implications for corporate sustainability.     

Corporate sustainability for architecture engineering and construction (AEC) organizations: Framework,transition and implication strategies

This research aims to propose a regenerative sustainability framework for AEC organizations, not only to focus on delivering green certified projects, but to encourage a revitalized approach to systematically drive their sustainability initiative. To achieve this aim, the study conducts an extensive global review of sustainable assessment systems in various industries and organizations, such as corporate sustainable reports, green company competitions, and green-renowned stocks. After learning the best practices from other industries, a sustainable development framework for the AEC organizations is developed. The proposed framework constitutes 110 key indicators covering three-dimensions of sustainability—social, environmental, and economic, respectively—and four-elements of corporate development essentials—projects, operations, governance, and stakeholders. By comparing the proposed framework to existing AEC practices, the study identifies the skewed development of corporate sustainability in the AEC industry where much awareness have been given to project-level environmental matters, but the social dimension, such as social stakeholders and social governance, are seriously lacking and need to be prioritized. A case study of a multi-millions construction company in China was investigated to validate this framework in practice. The case analysis justifies the practical value of the proposed framework, and elaborates the future need of regenerative sustainable initiatives for AEC organizations. The study contributes to the development of corporate sustainability theory in the AEC industry, and also provides industrial practitioners and policy makers with a better understanding of the next generation of corporate sustainable performance and implementation strategies.     

Evaluations of corporate sustainability indicators based on fuzzy similarity graphs

The paper deals with inconsistencies of composite sustainability indicators and their different subsets (economic, environmental, social, and corporate governance). Corporate sustainability performance is usually highly nonlinear, vague, partially inconsistent and multidimensional. The resulting models are often oversimplified. The key reason is an information shortage which eliminates the unsophisticated applications of classical statistical methods. Numbers are accurate and information intensive. Verbal quantifications are less accurate and therefore not that information intensive. Fuzzy sets and fuzzy reasoning are used to make verbal quantifiers suitable for computer applications. A fuzzy similarity graph is defined. A team of experts identified 17 relevant variables (e.g. Environmental costs, Occupational diseases, Number of complaints received from stakeholders) and 12 company data sets are available. Each company is presented as a fuzzy conditional statement. A set of fuzzy pairwise similarities is generated and used to evaluate five similarity graphs: a Total Graph (based on all 17 variables) and graphs based on relevant specific subsets of variables, Economic, Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance graphs. The topologies of these graphs are significantly different. No prior knowledge of fuzzy reasoning is required.     

Assessing the sustainability of water companies: A synthetic indicator approach

Performance indicators (PIs) are essential in the benchmarking process used to rate and rank water companies. However, a set of individual PIs does not provide a holistic assessment of company performance from multiple perspectives. A multidimensional evaluation of the performance of water companies can be achieved by aggregating the PIs into a synthetic indicator. Although the concept of sustainability involves economic, environmental and social criteria, most of the previous studies have not considered these three dimensions simultaneously. This paper discusses a process of indicator aggregation using two approaches based on multi-criteria decision analysis to evaluate and compare the sustainability of water companies from a holistic perspective. A synthetic indicator embracing economic, environmental and social PIs was computed for a sample of 154 Portuguese water companies. Both methods yielded similar rankings of water company sustainability. The techniques and results presented in this paper may be utilized as a means of improving the benchmarking process in regulated water industries, as well as providing valuable contributions to decision-makers on the most efficient steps for improving the sustainability of urban water services.     

Sustainability governance service providers: the role of third-party product certification in facilitating corporate life cycle management

Purpose

This article aims to analyze the role that third-party product sustainability certifications play in supply chain sustainability governance and hence the impact that they may have on facilitating corporate life cycle management (LCM). Particular emphasis is given to exploring the extent to which such schemes allow firms to outsource the work of communication, motivation, enablement, and control of sustainability-related information and performance upstream in the supply chain.

Methods

The research design is based on a comparative case study methodology. The corporate practices of sourcing the sustainability certified products in the food retailing and textile sectors are compared, to explain when third-party product sustainability certification reduces the corporate need to engage in collaborative relationships with suppliers, thereby reducing efforts associated with implementation of corporate life cycle management.

Results and discussion

In our study, we found evidence that affirms the role of third-party product sustainability certification in reducing corporate necessity to actively engage with coordination of sustainability issues upstream in the supply chain. However, we also identified a range of factors—the intention of the buying company, the supply chain context, and the design of the certification scheme—that influence the extent, to which third-party product sustainability certification replaces the corporate need for additional work to facilitate supplier compliance. Some of these factors, e.g., the design of the certification scheme, are new and have been underexplored in the supply chain management and value chain governance literature yet.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that corporate LCM practitioners should consider third-party sustainability certification as an instrument for the transfer of significant life cycle information along the supply chain and as a tool to facilitate corporate life cycle management. The extent to which third-party product sustainability certification would be able to facilitate corporate life cycle management depends not only on whether certification requirements are based on the LCA studies but also on the market scope of the certification schemes, the scope of the certification requirements, and the architecture of the certification management services. If these parameters are aligned with corporate ambitions and allow buyers to fully outsource the work associated with communication, motivation, enablement, and control of sustainability-related information and supplier performance, the life cycle management can be exercised by companies by simply choosing to procure sustainability certified products.

     

Assessment of sustainable development in the EU 27 using aggregated SD index

In the European Union the sustainable development is a fundamental and overarchingobjective enshrined in the Treaty and measuring progress towards sustainable development is an integral part of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Eurostat produce a monitoring report every two years based on the EU set of sustainable development indicators (SDIs). The main objective of this paper is to create an aggregated index of the sustainable development from EU set of SDIs for each 27 EU country based on the PCA. The headline indicator economic growth was not involved because its increase is not expressly followed by positive change in other SDIs from social, economic and environmental fields. The aggregated SD index enables to get an overall picture about the position of each of the 27 EU countries and its development in terms of the sustainability over time as assumed in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Sweden, Denmark, Netherland, and Great Britain have repeatedly reached the highest value of aggregated SD index. The highest positive change in the aggregated SD index has occurred in countries with the lowest value of aggregated SD index. Moreover, we put this new aggregated index in relation with economic growth and found that there is a negative correlation between aggregated SD index and the economic growth for most of the 27 EU countries.     

The Dashboard of Sustainability to measure the local urban sustainable development: The case study of Padua Municipality

The adoption of suitable indicators is fundamental to implement sustainable development at the local level. It helps in the analysis and evaluation; supports the decisional process and helps the communication between the citizens and the society, in general.Furthermore, the aggregated indexes – by representing the observed context in a simple way – may help the community in the definition of effective improvement goals and also serve as important tools to monitor the fulfillment of the planned objectives.The Dashboard of Sustainability (DS) is a mathematical and graphical tool designed to integrate the complex influences of sustainability and support the decision-making process by creating concise evaluations.The city of Padua, Italy, agreed to use the DS in its Local Agenda 21 project, financed by the Italian Ministry of Environment. The available data were sufficient to design 61 useful indicators of environmental protection, economic development, and social promotion.The results of the analysis were discussed in Padua's community forum on the Local Agenda 21 process. The graphical and numerical results helped Padua reach a consensus on the plan for future sustainability, one that was understood and accepted by all the stakeholders.In order to adapt this tool to a local context, two changes in the methodologies were necessary: to measure urban sustainability, for which “ad hoc” set indicators were used; and to allow a comparative evaluation, for which the performances of Padua were evaluated over time. These changes were possible, thanks to the flexibility of such tool.     

Introducing weights to life cycle sustainability assessment—how do decision-makers weight sustainability dimensions?

Purpose

Decisions based on life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) pose a multi-criteria decision issue, as impacts on the three different sustainability dimensions have to be considered which themselves are often measured through several indicators. To support decision-making at companies, a method to interpret multi-criteria assessment and emerging trade-offs would be beneficial. This research aims at enabling decision-making within LCSA by introducing weights to the sustainability dimensions.

Methods

To derive weights, 54 decision-makers of different functions at a German automotive company were asked via limit conjoint analysis how they ranked the economic, environmental, and social performance of a vehicle component. Results were evaluated for the entire sample and by functional clusters. Additionally, sustainability respondents, i.e., respondents that dealt with sustainability in their daily business, were contrasted with non-sustainability respondents. As a last step, the impact of outliers was determined. From this analysis, practical implications for ensuring company-optimal decision-making in regard to product sustainability were derived.

Results and discussion

The results showed a large spread in weighting without clear clustering. On average, all sustainability dimensions were considered almost equally important: the economic dimension tallied at 33.5%, the environmental at 35.2%, and the social at 31.2%. Results were robust as adjusting for outliers changed weights on average by less than 10%. Results by function showed low consistency within clusters hinting that weighting was more of a personal than a functional issue. Sustainability respondents weighted the social before the environmental and economic dimension while non-sustainability respondents put the economic before the other two dimensions. Provided that the results of this research could be generalized, the retrieved weighting set was seen as a good way to introduce weights into an operationalized LCSA framework as it represented the quantification of the already existing decision process. Therefore, the acceptance of this weighting set within the respective company was expected to be increased.

Conclusions

It could be shown that conjoint analysis enabled decision-making within LCSA by introducing weights to solve a multi-criteria decision issue. Furthermore, implications for practitioners could be derived to ensure company-optimal decision-making related to product sustainability. Future research should look at expanding the sample size and geographical scope as well as investigating the weighting of indicators within sustainability dimensions and the drivers that influence personal decision-making in regard to weighting sustainability dimensions.

     

Assessment of sustainable livelihoods of different farmers in hilly red soil erosion areas of southern China

Livelihood vulnerability in environmentally fragile areas is emerging as a key issue due to its positive feedback to environmental degradation. Assessment of sustainable livelihoods is a crucial prerequisite for targeting interventions. However, aggregated analysis usually obtained ambiguous conclusions because they ignored the heterogeneity of rural households. Here, we evaluated the livelihood sustainability of different rural households by constructing an improved Livelihood Sustainability Index (LSI) in hilly red soil erosion areas of southern China. Changting County was selected as the study case by virtue of its unique representativeness in soil erosion and poverty. The results showed that livelihood sustainability among rural households was far from equivalent. Different from previous studies, higher nonfarm income share was not always consistent with higher extent of livelihood sustainability. Besides nonfarm employment, agricultural specialization could be another viable pathway to attain sustainable livelihoods. We also found that intergenerational sustainability was one primary cause for long-term livelihood differentiation of rural households. The poor education in rural areas would aggravate livelihood vulnerability of the poor and threaten the sustainable livelihoods of specialized agricultural households. Policy implications include further investment in rural infrastructure, irrigation and drainage, and stimulus for land transfer and concentration to facilitate agrarian specialization; enhancing investment in rural education to improve intergenerational sustainability; as well as targeting of the most vulnerable households, for example, promoting development of social insurance, social relief, and medical services for orphans and widows.     

An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies

Sustainability indicators and composite index are increasingly recognised as a useful tool for policy making and public communication in conveying information on countries and corporate performance in fields such as environment, economy, society, or technological improvement. By visualizing phenomena and highlighting trends, sustainability indicators simplify, quantify, analyse and communicate otherwise complex and complicated information.There are number of initiatives working on indicators and frameworks for sustainable development (SD). This article provides an overview various sustainability indices applied in policy practice. The paper also compiles the information related to sustainability indices formulation strategy, scaling, normalisation, weighting and aggregation methodology.     

Prediction of chemical-protein interactions: multitarget-QSAR versus computational chemogenomic methods

Elucidation of chemical-protein interactions (CPI) is the basis of target identification and drug discovery. It is time-consuming and costly to determine CPI experimentally, and computational methods will facilitate the determination of CPI. In this study, two methods, multitarget quantitative structure-activity relationship (mt-QSAR) and computational chemogenomics, were developed for CPI prediction. Two comprehensive data sets were collected from the ChEMBL database for method assessment. One data set consisted of 81?689 CPI pairs among 50?924 compounds and 136 G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), while the other one contained 43?965 CPI pairs among 23?376 compounds and 176 kinases. The range of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the test sets was 0.95 to 1.0 and 0.82 to 1.0 for 100 GPCR mt-QSAR models and 100 kinase mt-QSAR models, respectively. The AUC of 5-fold cross validation were about 0.92 for both 176 kinases and 136 GPCRs using the chemogenomic method. However, the performance of the chemogenomic method was worse than that of mt-QSAR for the external validation set. Further analysis revealed that there was a high false positive rate for the external validation set when using the chemogenomic method. In addition, we developed a web server named CPI-Predictor, , which is available for free. The methods and tool have potential applications in network pharmacology and drug repositioning.     

Integrated assessment of agricultural production practices to enhance sustainable development in agricultural landscapes

This study presents an integrated assessment approach for the sustainable development of agricultural landscapes. The approach evaluates single agricultural production practices by means of environmental, economic and social indicators. To implement the approach, a mixed method was employed that combines modelling techniques and survey methods. The economic and environmental indicators were implemented within the bio-economic modelling system MODAM (Multi-Objective Decision support system for Agro-ecosystem Management) in order to assess economic performance and the effects on the abiotic and biotic environments. The modelling approach was applied to a case study in a region of north-eastern Germany, within the state of Brandenburg. In addition, the acceptance by farmers of different production alternatives that are known to have environmental benefits was examined in the case study. To allow for a direct comparison between different indicators, the results of the assessment are dimensionless index values that indicate the suitability of certain agricultural production practices with respect to an indicator. The indicator-related indices are then aggregated into an overall index of sustainability differentiating between ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ sustainability. Results are presented for exemplarily chosen production practices for sugar beet, potato and winter rape production and set aside. Depending on the underlying concept of sustainability (‘weak’ vs. ‘strong’), different production practices were identified as the most suitable ones in a given situation. This integrated assessment enables determination of positive and negative correlations between indicators. The approach allows for the identification of production alternatives that are assessed to be economically and environmentally beneficial as well as socially accepted, although at different levels.     

The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard as a Framework for Eco-efficiency Analysis

To provide valuable support for successful decision-making, managers need a balanced set of financial and nonfinancial measures that represent different requirements, strategic goals, strategies, resources, and capabilities and the causal relationships between these domains. The balanced scorecard is such a measurement system. As an open system the balanced scorecard facilitates the consideration of sustainability issues. But enhanced balanced scorecards require a new type of data. This is where eco-efficiency analysis comes into play.
This article discusses the relationship between so-called sustainability balanced scorecards and eco-efficiency analysis. Eco-efficiency analysis not only provides a data source for sustainability balanced scorecards; in the perspective of environmental information systems it also serves as a link between the balanced scorecard and corporate environmental accounting systems so that eco-efficiency as a component of an environmental information system becomes an adapter with two interfaces, which are characterized in this article. The main focus is on the principle of cause and effect, its different forms, and the implications for the design of appropriate information system components.     

A PCA-based method for construction of composite sustainability indicators

Purpose

Sustainable manufacturing is practiced globally as a comprehensive strategy for improving the sustainability performance of the manufacturing industry. While sustainability is characterized into such three dimensions as economic, environmental, and social, currently, there is no quantitative method yet to measure the so-called ??sustainability?? in the manufacturing industry. The objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive and effective quantitative method to measure the overall sustainability performance of manufacturing companies.

Methods

In this paper, an integrated methodology is presented for the development of composite sustainability indicators based on principal component analysis (PCA). In developing this integrated approach, both industry and academia surveys are conducted to identify what sustainability indicators are favored by the sustainable manufacturing community. A unique index is then generated to measure the overall sustainability performance of industrial practices. The methodology can be used for benchmarking the overall sustainability performance of various manufacturing companies.

Results

A case study is conducted on a total of 11 global electronic manufacturing companies. The overall sustainability performance of these companies are measured, benchmarked, and ranked. The results showed that PCA is an effective approach for constructing composite sustainability indicators across environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

Conclusions

From this research, it is found that industry and academia have different views on the sustainability measurement, evidenced by different weights put on the same indicator in industry and academia. The case study demonstrated that the methodology presented in this paper is an effective tool for comprehensive measurement of sustainability performance of manufacturing companies. Strengths and weaknesses of each company can be identified. Then, the recommended improvements can be suggested based on the study of each of the individual indicators.     

Development of social sustainability assessment method and a comparative case study on assessing recycled construction materials

Purpose

Sustainability analysis should include the assessment of the environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout the life cycle of a product. However, the social sustainability performance assessment is seldom carried out during materials selection due to its complex nature and the lack of a social life cycle assessment tool. This study presents a single score-based social life cycle assessment methodology, namely social sustainability grading model, for assessing and comparing the social sustainability performance of construction materials using a case study on recycled and natural construction materials.

Methods

The proposed method is developed based on the methodological framework provided by the United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry guidelines published in 2009 and the methodological sheets published in 2013, the indicators and sustainability reporting guidelines provided by the Global Reporting Initiatives and ISO 26000 for social responsibility of products, and the indicators provided by the Hong Kong Business Environment Council Limited for construction sustainability. A twofold research approach is proposed in this model: the first one is the qualitative research based on expert interviews to identify, select, and prioritize the relevant subcategories and indicators, and the second one is the operational research based on the case-specific survey to collect the required data. A social sustainability index was proposed for the interpretation of the results effectively. A case study on construction materials was conducted to illustrate the implementation of the method using case-specific first-hand data.

Results and discussion

The major outcome of this study is the systematic development of a social sustainability assessment tool based on the established standards and guidelines. The case study showed that four subcategories are crucial social concerns for construction materials (i.e., health and safety issues of the materials, health and safety of workers, company’s commitment to sustainability, and company’s policies on energy and water consumption). Based on the sustainability index proposed, using recycled aggregates from locally generated waste materials scored higher (about 31–34%) social sustainability than using imported natural aggregates. In addition, recycled aggregates and natural aggregates achieved “sustainable” and “neutral” rating sustainability levels, respectively. However, several subcategories (e.g., health and safety, working hour, forced work, training and social benefits of workers, and quality of the materials and information disclosing to public) are still needed to improve the social sustainability performance of recycled aggregates.

Conclusions

An integrated social life cycle assessment method is presented in this study for assessing the social sustainability of construction materials. In addition, the reported case study in this paper is one of the first attempts for social sustainability assessment of recycled construction materials, and the method can be applied to other recycled materials/products for comparative analysis. However, several critical factors, such as integration in other life cycle methods and software, sensitivity analysis, and more case studies, are still needed for further improvement of the developed method.

     

Development of a sustainable balanced scorecard framework

The balanced scorecard (BSC) has recently been considered a proper tool for evaluating and designing the objectives of corporate sustainability. On the one hand, the theoretical body of literature provides normative sustainable balanced scorecard (SBSC) frameworks to indicate ‘what should be measured’ or ‘what should be done’ in order for firms to improve their sustainability performance. On the other hand, the empirical body of literature examines the barriers and the challenges faced by the firms in their endeavor to adopt the proposed normative frameworks. This paper aims at contributing to the theoretical body of literature by developing a new SBSC scoring framework using Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators and scoring–benchmarking techniques to measure the corporate sustainability performance by drawing data from corporate sustainability reports. It also aims at contributing to the empirical body of literature by applying this framework to a sample of Greek firms.     

Ecological network analysis of urban–industrial ecosystems

Sustainability of urban areas is paramount in the coming years as cities continue to grow in population and resource consumption. A number of methods to model cities have been developed, including material flow analysis and urban metabolism, but these accounting methods do not fully analyze the complex network dynamics present within cities. Ecological network analysis (ENA) provides a new perspective into these urban areas by using metrics designed for analysis of natural ecosystems. This study analyzes 29 urban–industrial ecosystems using ENA, comparing the networks to each other as well as comparing them to previously analyzed eco‐industrial parks and natural food webs. It is found that these systems perform similar to other human‐designed systems, which consistently lack in ecological performance when compared with the natural ecosystems. Additionally, the impact of specific actor types within these networks is shown indicating the importance of industry, agriculture, and the natural environment. Finally, the types of networks are determined to affect the ecological metrics, with the more linear‐based energy networks having the worst performance. This new dataset of ecologically analyzed networks provides a deeper understanding of urban networks and their infrastructure, while providing useful information on how to potentially improve their sustainability.     

Defining criteria and indicators for a sustainability label of local public services

The assessment of sustainability of public services is an important issue, especially at local level, taken into account the central role of local governments as a major public employer and provider of a diversity of services. Local governments are close to citizens and are moving faster than other public sector levels with regard to the integration of sustainability principles in their operations and strategies. A sustainability label to communicate public service performance enables to disclose information directly to service users. However, there is a dearth of research about labels addressing specific sustainability criteria for local services. The main aim of this research was the development of a conceptual framework to define a sustainability label, as a tool to assess and communicate sustainability of local public services. The approach was developed taking into account criteria of the European Union Ecolabel and indicators of the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. The ecolabel is a relatively well-known voluntary instrument in Europe and has the potential for application in public service activities and operations, but only assess the environmental component of sustainability. The Global Reporting Initiative, in particular the Sector Supplement for Public Agencies, was then used to integrate the other sustainability components. Thirty-six (36) criteria and respective indicators were adapted for the proposed sustainability label conceptual framework. A Portuguese local public service was used as an exploratory case study to test the proposed conceptual model into practice. The overall results demonstrate that few criteria were accomplished in this local public service, stressing that new practices and public policies need to be adopted to invert the current trend, especially through the application of assessment systems. This exploratory case study research has shown how useful can be a sustainability label to support local governments in evaluating and communicating the sustainability performance of their public services. This case could drive and support other government levels, including central and regional public administration, in adopting and exploring public service labels and their associated performance approaches.     

Sustainable Global Agrifood Supply Chains: Exploring the Barriers

The article investigates the factors that make businesses postpone integrating the performance dimension of sustainability in global agrifood supply chains. Based on literature‐based conceptual reasoning, the article conceptualizes a double company lens distinguishing between substantial supply chain management and mere public relations endeavors as a major obstacle for businesses pursuing comprehensive supply chain performance in global agrifood chains. We point out that many supply chain performance attributes represent, in fact, credence attributes that cannot be verified by the consumer, hence entailing an information asymmetry between the company and its consumers. Rational business responses to this situation tend to focus on symbolic actions and communication efforts by means of sustainability reports and other brand‐enhancing marketing tools that may be decoupled from substantial operations and supply chain improvements. The research propositions developed have partly been corroborated by a content analysis of annual and sustainability reports of four major agrifood companies (Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Mondelez International). The conceptual arguments and empirical analysis presented in the article may serve as the basis for managers and academics to develop innovative inter‐ and intraorganizational business processes that reconcile trade‐offs between various agrifood supply chain performance dimensions, thus pushing the performance frontier outward, and that provide the necessary transparency for overcoming the currently adverse setting of incentives inherent in the food production, processing, retailing, and consumption system.