The Guidelines for Value Chain Selection: Integrating economic, environmental, social and institutional criteria offer a holistic and structured approach to value chain selection. They combine four different dimensions of value chains/sustainable development: economic, environmental, social and institutional. Since the four dimensions are interconnected, overlooking any one of them during value chain selection will affect the next phase of value chain analysis and development. Because currently no comprehensive or systematic approach or methodology exists that combines these four dimensions, these guidelines have been developed
to fill the gap.
Many traditional and innovative green products, such as organic food and green technologies, are steadily mounting. Nowadays there is ample opportunity for ‘green economy’ business models, which make optimal use of (scarce ) natural resources, use less fossil fuels, and result in reducing environmental risk— sustainable development without degrading the environment. In short: including environmental criteria in the value chain selection phase ensures that key environmental considerations are included from the beginning of your program and potential opportunities are not overlooked.