Explaining the Impact of Supply Chain Transparency on Sustainable Consumption

Over the past two decades, sustainable consumption has garnered widespread attention from various stakeholders around the world such as the government, the general public, international organizations, researchers, and academia. Due to the effects of climate change, usage of scarce resources, global warming, and waste production, there's an urgent need to adopt sustainable practices for the well-being of the next generation (Ottman, 2011; Wei et al., 2017). Thus, nations across the world have started taking initiatives to lessen the harmful environmental practices associated with economic activities. This acknowledgment and awareness about the environment have led to the establishment of sustainable consumption which emphasizes sustainable practices that result in a lesser negative impact on the environment (Joshi et al., 2019). 

The term sustainable consumption refers to "the use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials, and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations" (Kongress Oslo, 1994). Notably, the essence of sustainable consumption alludes that whatever we purchase, consume, and dispose of, should not impact our environment in a way that the earth becomes uninhabitable for the generation to come because consumer choices not only have an impact on the current generation's but also on how well the future generation can meet its requirements (Lee, 2014). Since there has been a growing demand for sustainable products in the market, companies need to disclose information about the products as modern-day consumers are not only interested in the end product, but also in the sourcing, production, and distribution processes that bring it to market (Kirchoff et al., 2017). From different empirical studies, it has been found that a staggering 87% of consumers have become increasingly conscious of the social and environmental implications associated with a product (Bonini & Oppenheim, 2008). Besides, consumers make purchasing decisions based on the sustainability information of the product (Grunert et al., 2014; Marucheck et al., 2011). As a result, consumers' need for comprehensive product information related to production and the intricacies of the supply chain system has increased (Marucheck et al., 2011). Thus, it has become imperative for companies to maintain transparency across all stages of the supply chain.