Social sustainability and supply chain management: Methods and tools

Abstract Nowadays, organisations need to be socially responsible by assessing their social impacts and/or performances and those of their supply chain actors in order to achieve competitive advantages. In this perspective, they should be aware of the different available methods and tools that can be used to take socially responsible decisions. The aim of this study is to provide a useful toolbox within Supply Chain Management in order to help decision makers to assess systematically the social sustainability of organisations. For this reason, an analysis of existing methods and tools was performed by following the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines” (PRISMA). A combination of the emerged methods and tools within the SCM is desirable in order to obtain a common vision amongst the social sustainability actors of the organisation and its supply chain. Furthermore, the results draw attention to the need for further development towards social assessment approaches in terms of Life Cycle Thinking.