Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

This research program aims to provide the Canadian forest industry with innovative tools and methods grounded in the domains of industrial engineering and supply chain management in order to improve its sustainability and reduce its environmental footprint. For the forest products industry to remain competitive, new and existing business models must be re-evaluated from the perspective of sustainability; this calls for the integration of economic, environmental and social dimensions in strategic planning and decision making. This proposal introduces a multidisciplinary team of researchers in industrial engineering, forestry, business administration and computer science that intends to tackle various problems arising in the design of sustainable value chains. This program is the continuation of research efforts initiated by a team of professors, PHQ, research professionals and industrial partners of FOR@C. In brief, this program intends address the design of value chains that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable while considering various sources of uncertainty. Effective transfer of the models and tools developed in the research program from researchers to the industrial partners will be facilitated through the development of three decision support systems (SilviLab, LogiLab and CarbonLab).