Roundtable 1: Resilience and Sustainability in Supply Chains
The final event of the ReSChape project was held on 18th September 2025 in Brussels, bringing together academics, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss and share the project’s findings on how to enhance sustainability and resilience in supply chains. After three years of the project, which included several workshops, interviews, and focus groups with companies and policymakers, the results were presented and discussed during three round tables, demonstrations, and policy recommendations.
The first round table, moderated by Rosanna Fornasiero, coordinator of the project and research director at CNR, explored the complex relationship between resilience and sustainability in supply chain management. After a brief introduction to the project results, the experts invited to the round table were asked to present actions and strategies that can be implemented at the supply chain level to enhance sustainability and resilience in a systemic way.
Pedro Senna from INESC TEC highlighted that, although the concepts of sustainability and resilience are interconnected, managing this interaction is a critical concern in supply chain management. The Radar developed in the ReSChape project is based on extensive mapping of numerous actions that could effectively mitigate sustainability risks through resilience capabilities, pointing to readiness strategies and early warning systems during disruptions as potential solutions.
Additionally, Andrea Zangiacomi from CNR shared insights from the examined case studies, which provide an in-depth analysis of what companies are doing to become more sustainable. These multiple case studies demonstrate that applying a transformative approach can help establish a new normal by leveraging collaboration beyond the supply chain, digital integration, and organisational learning processes to improve social sustainability impacts through knowledge sharing. Examples from sectors such as the fashion industry and steel companies highlighted new models involving stakeholders like municipalities, NGOs, and societal actors in defining collaborative actions.
The round table was further enriched by contributions from Prof. Aris Matopolous of Cranfield University, who discussed strategies to engage suppliers on sustainability issues. He categorised supplier development strategies into three types of actions – direct control, first-tier supplier involvement, and third-party organisation engagement. While direct control can pose difficulties when managing thousands of suppliers from developing countries, he argued that trade associations can facilitate and oversee supplier sustainability, extending this responsibility further down the supply chain.
Finally, he emphasised the gap between corporate commitments and actual practices, underlining the need for actions that foster a balanced approach combining incentives, risk-sharing, and monitoring. Lastly, Markus Witthaut from Fraunhofer concluded that several key cross-cutting issues influence the resilience of supply chains and require ongoing management. Developing new policies could assist companies in addressing challenges such as data security, workforce re-skilling, and the impacts of global environmental change.
Finally, moderator Rosanna Fornasiero highlighted that ReSChape results can assist companies in identifying resilience capabilities to improve their internal and external processes for sustainability implementation. Based on expert insights, she noted that using the ReSChape Radar or the guidelines from case studies allows companies to take proactive measures. These include training workers and partners with suitable programmes, as well as investing in innovation and digital transformation within the supply chain. When discussing resilience capabilities such as readiness, response, and recovery, the talk also underscored how company size and collaboration in supply chains can be competitive advantages in managing sustainability disruptions.