Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains
Open accessAbstract
Over the last few decades rapid advances in processes to collect, monitor, disclose, and disseminate information have contributed towards the development of entirely new modes of sustainability governance for global commodity supply chains. However, there has been very little critical appraisal of the contribution made by different transparency initiatives to sustainability and the ways in which they can (and cannot) influence new governance arrangements. Here we seek to strengthen the theoretical underpinning of research and action on supply chain transparency by addressing four questions: (1) What is meant by supply chain transparency? (2) What is the relevance of supply chain transparency to supply chain sustainability governance? (3) What is the current status of supply chain transparency, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of existing initiatives? and (4) What propositions can be advanced for how transparency can have a positive transformative effect on the governance interventions that seek to strengthen sustainability outcomes? We use examples from agricultural supply chains and the zero-deforestation agenda as a focus of our analysis but draw insights that are relevant to the transparency and sustainability of supply chains in general. We propose a typology to distinguish among types of supply chain information that are needed to support improvements in sustainability governance, and illustrate a number of major shortfalls and systematic biases in existing information systems. We also propose a set of ten propositions that, taken together, serve to expose some of the potential pitfalls and undesirable outcomes that may result from (inevitably) limited or poorly designed transparency systems, whilst offering guidance on some of the ways in which greater transparency can make a more effective, lasting and positive contribution to sustainability.
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The causal relation between transparency and economic, environmental or social performance is still very difficult to estimate and contingent on where and what kind of undesirable behaviour is being scrutinized.
“The causal relation between transparency and economic, environmental or social performance is still very difficult to estimate (Auld and Gulbrandsen, 2010;Ponte and Gibbon, 2011;Gardner et al., 2018) and contingent on where and what kind of undesirable behaviour is being scrutinized.”
From Making deforestation risk visible. Discourses on bovine leather supply chain in Brazil (2020) · cites this paper as Gardner et al., 2018
In “Information, information transparency, and supply chain governance” (page unavailable), the paper says conceptual understanding of the link between transparency and supply-chain governance remains weak. Its “Impacts of supply chain transparency on environmental and social outcomes” section describes context-dependent trade-offs, but does not specifically say that the causal effect on economic, environmental, or social performance is very difficult to estimate. (LLM, conf=0.77)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredFor supply chains to be transparent requires mechanisms that incorporate both traceability of commodities across the chain and sustainability conditions of traders and suppliers.
“Recent studies argue that for supply chains to be transparent requires mechanisms that incorporate both traceability of commodities across the chain and sustainability conditions of traders and suppliers (Egels-Zandén et al., 2015;Gardner et al., 2018).”
From Making deforestation risk visible. Discourses on bovine leather supply chain in Brazil (2020) · cites this paper as Gardner et al., 2018
Transparency does not always lead to the desired positive outcomes and may lead to reverse impacts.
“Transparency does not always lead to the desired positive outcomes and may lead to reverse impacts (Mol, 2010;Garrett et al., 2016;Gardner et al., 2018;van der Ven et al., 2018).”
From Making deforestation risk visible. Discourses on bovine leather supply chain in Brazil (2020) · cites this paper as Gardner et al., 2018
Transparency of one aspect can divert attention from, simplify or diminish the importance of others.
“Thus, transparency of one aspect can divert attention from, simplify or diminish the importance of others (Flyverbom, 2016;Gardner et al., 2018;Mol and Oosterveer, 2015).”
From Making deforestation risk visible. Discourses on bovine leather supply chain in Brazil (2020) · cites this paper as Gardner et al., 2018
When transparency is used to increase surveillance, it can push the responsibility and associated cost of compliance to upstream actors that lack resources to adhere to standards or demonstrate sustainable behaviour.
“Thus, when transparency is used to increase surveillance (Gardner et al., 2018), it can also push the responsibility and associated cost of compliance to those upstream actors at the beginning of the supply chain that lack substantial resources to either adhere to the standards or to demonstrate sustainable behaviour already in place (Gupta, 2010;Gebara and Agrawal, 2017).”
From Making deforestation risk visible. Discourses on bovine leather supply chain in Brazil (2020) · cites this paper as Gardner et al., 2018
For the transparency of the supply chain, the different discourses translate to different ideas about data collection and monitoring of different actors, production processes, and trade within the chain.
“For the transparency of the supply chain, this translates to different ideas about data collection and monitoring of different actors, production processes and trade within the chain (Flyverbom, 2016;Gardner et al., 2018).”
From Making deforestation risk visible. Discourses on bovine leather supply chain in Brazil (2020) · cites this paper as Gardner et al., 2018
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- Authors
- Gardner, T. A., Benzie, M., Börner, J., Dawkins, E., Fick, S., Garrett, R., Godar, J., Grimard, A., Lake, S., Larsen, R. K., Mardas, N., McDermott, C. L., Meyfroidt, P., Osbeck, M., Persson, M., Sembres, T., Suavet, C., Strassburg, B., Trevisan, A., West, C., & Wolvekamp, P.
- Affiliations
- Stockholm Environment Institute (SE)
- University of Bonn (DE)
- Boston University (US)
- Global Canopy (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Fund for Scientific Research (BE)
- International Institute for Sustainability (BR)
- European Commission (BE)
- University of York (GB)
- Chalmers University of Technology (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Gardner, T.A.
- ORCID
- Venue
- World Development
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-09
- Volume
- 121
- Pages
- 163-177
- ISSN
- 0305-750X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6686968
- OpenAlex
- W2807034872
- Cited by
- 530
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 71 · 2025: 83 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 76 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 63 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 9
- FWCI
- 66.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- World Development (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion, public-domain)
- Chalmers Research (Chalmers University of Technology) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Digital Access to Libraries (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), l'Université de Namur (UNamur) and the Université Saint-Louis (USL-B)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection (cc-by)
- Funders
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (#5594)
- Climate and Land Use Alliance (G-1611-55348)
- Swedish Research Council Formas (2012-1453, 2014-1181, 2016-00351)
- BBSRC (BBNO2060X/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Global trade, sustainability, and social impact
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Oil Palm Production and Sustainability
- Keywords
- supply chain transparency, agricultural supply chain, transparency initiatives, information systems, deforestation
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