Renewable energy in sustainable supply chain: A review

In the search for sustainable processes and products, eco-friendly policies have been developed over the years, aiming to reduce the environmental impacts as a step toward sustainability. Among the environmental impacts, alternatives to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions - GHG stand out due to the concerns with climate change. Then, the development and use of renewable resources become relevant. Considering that the supply chains are intense in energy consumption and GHG emissions (since it involves processes related to supply, production, transport, consumption), it becomes relevant to investigate if the management of sustainable supply chain is considering the renewable energies in their processes. Therefore, this paper aims at mapping the role of renewable energies in the context of the sustainable supply chain, analyzing the literature published at Web of Science database - WoS about the subject. The main researchers, organizations, collaboration networks were presented, and the 21 most cited studies were mapped in this paper. The research was carried out with the papers published at WoS until 2019, using VantagePoint software to handle information. The findings show that the research about renewable energy in the context of a sustainable supply chain has been growing, especially since 2010. Moreover, biomass, biofuels and photovoltaic energy were the recurrent sources of renewable energy studied by most cited papers. However, the theme presented itself as new and there is still potential to be explored.

Automated summary

This paper analyzes the role of renewable energies in the context of sustainable supply chains through a literature review. The research findings indicate that the study of renewable energy in the sustainable supply chain has been growing, particularly since 2010. Biomass, biofuels, and photovoltaic energy are the most commonly studied sources of renewable energy. However, there is still potential for further exploration in this field.