The Reimagining Supply Chains Initiative

We cannot create a sustainable economic system without fundamentally transforming our systems of global supply. This is the basis for a collaborative initiative called Reimagining Supply Chains, which aims to challenge conventional thinking on supply chain management by exploring new models for our systems of materials use, production, distribution and consumption.

Building a supply chain model that positively contributes to a healthy planet and thriving society, today and for generations to come, requires going beyond optimizing existing processes and structures to more radically reimagining the role of supply chain management. It demands new theoretical and methodological approaches and challenges the conventional toolbox that enables supply chain managers to translate this understanding into business model innovation.

The Reimagining Supply Chains Initiative aims to provide a platform for leadership and dialogue through a number of collaborative activities. In 2019, Copenhagen Business School in Denmark and the Nordakademie Foundation in Germany established an ambitious partnership to develop interdisciplinary research on new models for supply chain management, which has been incorporated under the umbrella of the initiative.

Drawing on a broad spectrum of theoretical approaches ranging from ecology to political science, the collaboration seeks to explore how ethical, social and circular business models can support the necessary transition to a sustainable future.