Sustainable Supply Chains in the Electrification Transition: Network Design, Infrastructure, and Carbon Emissions

This work investigates the sustainable transition of supply chains in the context of
electrification and decarbonization, with particular focus on the battery and electric vehicle sectors. We make contributions at the intersection of supply chain management, sustainability, and operations research. The transportation industry accounts for a significant proportion of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, creating urgent operational and strategic challenges for supply chain managers navigating the shift toward low-carbon alternatives. Hence, it becomes critically important to develop analytical frameworks and optimization approaches that address infrastructure planning, supply chain complexity, and environmental performance simultaneously. Chapter 2 presents a systematic literature review of battery supply chain management, developing a lifecycle-based framework that synthesizes research across raw material sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and end-of-life management while identifying critical gaps and future research directions. Building on the research landscape established in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 examines the electric vehicle charging station network planning problem, proposing a location and capacity allocation model that integrates k-means clustering with demographic indicators to optimize charging infrastructure deployment. Chapter 4 extends the inquiry to a broader strategic level, investigating how supply chain network structure complexity (horizontal, vertical, and spatial dimensions) affects corporate carbon emissions, revealing that supplier network breadth reduces Scope 3 emissions while geographic dispersion increases them. These findings challenge assumptions that complexity universally hinders sustainability, demonstrating instead that strategic supply chain network design can mitigate or accelerate emissions. Taken together, this dissertation shows that network design choices carry real consequences for carbon emissions. These studies contribute new frameworks and evidence to the sustainable supply chain literature and offers practical direction for managers seeking to align operational decisions with climate objectives.