A triple bottom line balanced set of key performance indicators to measure the sustainability performance of industrial supply chains

The measurement of sustainability within industrial supply chains is becoming increasingly relevant, with both industry and academia calling for the development of a general and manageable set of key performance indicators (KPIs). With more than 2,000 performance measures already identified by the previous literature, the real challenge lays in the development of the right set of indicators. Stemming from a thorough literature review, we propose a novel set of KPIs, based on a Balance Score Card - Supply Chain Operations Reference integrated framework. Whilst including a limited number of KPIs, the proposed set: i) assures a balanced coverage of the sustainability pillars and related intersections; ii) addresses different decision-making levels, financial bases and components of performance; iii) simultaneously tackles the sustainability performance of an entire supply chain. We empirically validated the set in 3 supply chains and 7 focal firms, by assessing its completeness, usefulness and ease of use. The set resulted suitable for different contexts of application and appropriate for the evaluation of the sustainability performance of an overall supply chain. We conclude with remarks for academia, industry and policy-makers, also sketching directions for further research.