Sustainable supply chains
Environmental upgrading
Definition
Environmental upgrading is the process by which economic actors in global value chains move toward production systems that avoid or reduce environmental harm — through changes in products, processes, technologies, management systems and organisational arrangements (concept developed by De Marchi and colleagues from 2013 in the global value chain literature).
References
Supports definition and framing.
Overview
What it means
Analogous to economic upgrading (moving to higher-value activities), environmental upgrading asks how suppliers improve environmental performance and how gains are distributed along the chain. Research examines how lead-firm requirements, standards and knowledge transfer shape upgrading, and whether environmental gains coincide with or trade off against economic upgrading.
How it is used
Used in GVC and development research on green industrialisation, buyer-driven sustainability standards and supplier development.
Why it matters
It links supply-chain sustainability to development outcomes, clarifying when green requirements help or squeeze producers in the Global South.