CHANGES OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY AS FUNCTION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

One of the world’s strongest industries – information technology (IT) industry, is constantly facing everincreasing need for change. A short life cycle of IT products and continuous investment in innovation(production, distribution, recycling) led to a significant evolution of supply chain management, whereenvironmental issues are top priority.Through a completely new approach – high cooperation, partnerships, presence of many companies, moreand more complex data and improved response times, today’s multiple IT supply chains involve immensenumber of activities, not only to reach the business goals, but to take care of the environment and sustainabilityas well. Social issues (supply chain greening), product distribution choice, hub selection and production closer tocustomers (near-shoring) make the industry less polluting.This paper presents some examples of IT supply chain adjustments to the environmental requirements andlegislations, through the analyses of the world’s biggest IT company – Hewlett-Packard.

Key words: sustainable supply chain management, environment, sustainability, greening, savings