SUSTAINABILITY AWARENESS THROUGH THE SUPPLY CHAIN: AN ITEM GENERATION STUDY Aysu Göçer 1 , Ceren Altuntaş 2 , Gül Denktaş Şakar 3 Abstract – The long and complex supply chains of today are adopting sustainability practices by their individual members. However, the adoption of sustainable supply chain management is a crucial issue for the whole chain.The purpose of this study is to present the item generation process of a scale development effort for the measurement of sustainability awareness through the supply chain starting with raw material suppliers and ending with the consumers. The adopted research methodology for item generation starts with a thorough exploration of the related literature and is followed by examining the items of standards like ISO 14000 and ISO 26000, pilot studies with academicians and industry professionals. The research provides the first stage of and effort to generate a scale for the measurement of sustainability awareness through the supply chain. The tool is valuable for comparative studies among different supply chains operating in different industries and regions. Keywords: Awareness, Sustainability, Sustainable Supply Chain Management,Scale INTRODUCTION Today’s organizations operate in a global marketplace where both the suppliers and the markets are quite geographically dispersed. This contributes to global sourcing and international marketing activities, combined with extensive information technologies that result in longer and more complicated supply chains. Since production processes are mainly dispersed around the world, suppliers, the individual company, and its customers are linked by information, material and capital flows. Effectiveness of these flows mainly determines the competitiveness of the organizations in their operations. In addition to the efficiency of these flows experienced in the supply chain, a new dimension of competitiveness such as sustainability has been added to the agenda of the companies. Sustainability refers to an integration of social, environmental, and economic issues and is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” [25: 8]. Economic, social and environmental dimensions also known as the triple bottom line approach are recognised as three pillars of sustainability [10]. These pillars are not only integrated with the operations of an individual company but also with the network of suppliers, producers, distributors, and customers which mainly constitute the supply chain system. Sustainable supply chain is mainly considered as “the management of material, information and capital flows as well as cooperation among companies while taking goals from economic, environmental and social dimensions into account that are derived from customer and stakeholder requirements” [21: 1700]. It is “the strategic achievement and integration of an organizations’ social, environmental, and economic goals through the systemic coordination of key inter-organizational business processes to improve the long-term economic performance of the individual company and its value network ” [3: 368]. Since sustainable supply chain is a system that performs well on both measures of profit and loss and performance that includes social and natural dimensions [17], understanding of these three dimensions of sustainability is necessary for the overall performance of the supply chain. Sustainability concept is mainly driven by the basic understanding that the supply chain’s performance should not only be measured by profits, but also by the impact of the chain on ecological and social systems [11], so that an integrated consideration of the three pillars of sustainability should be made in the evaluation of supply chain performance. Reference [3] stressed the importance of four main supporting facets of sustainable supply chain as risk management, transparency, strategy and culture. The integration of these four facets can lead to 1 Aysu Göçer, İzmir University of Economics, Vocational School, İzmir, Turkey, aysu.gocer@ieu.edu.tr 2 Ceren Altuntaş, ceren.altuntas@yasar.edu.tr 3 Gül Denktaş Şakar, gul.denktas@deu.edu.tr