This week’s guest is Dr. Josue Velazquez Martinez.  Josue is a Research Scientist at MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics and is also the Director of MIT's Sustainable Supply Chain Lab.  In our conversation, we discuss his lab's focus on environmental and social sustainability within supply chains.  Josue describes the lab's work on the sustainability of freight transportation, emphasizing the need for diverse decarbonization strategies and better measurement of scope three emissions. Also, we discuss the annual State of Supply Chain Sustainability report, co-published with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), that tracks trends in corporate sustainability efforts.  

Additionally, Josue introduces the Low Income Firms Transformation (or LIFT) Lab that he also leads.  The LIFT Lab empowers Latin American and Caribbean micro-retailers and micro-restaurants (also known as nanostores) by enhancing their supply chain management skills and developing and deploying AI driven technology to improve their business operations.  The ultimate objective of the LIFT Lab is to alleviate poverty in these regions.