Sustainability, Geopolitics and Critical Mineral Supply Chains

The document examines the challenges European companies face in balancing sustainability and geopolitical resilience in critical raw material (CRM) supply chains. While firms are increasingly adopting sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices, they are hindered by limited supplier leverage, price competition, and import dependencies. The study concludes that current policy goals to reconcile these trade-offs are difficult to achieve in practice, suggesting a need for more coherent, cross-regional governance frameworks.

• European companies are increasingly recognizing the business case for sustainability and implementing structured sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) efforts, yet they are constrained by price competition, import dependencies, and limited leverage over suppliers.
• Regulatory frameworks, specifically the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, are prompting changes in industry behavior, although their overall impact is limited by uncertainty and governance gaps.
• There is a practical disconnect between policy objectives and industry reality, as goals to simultaneously achieve sustainability, competitiveness, and geopolitical resilience are difficult to implement, necessitating more coherent cross-regional frameworks.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2025). Sustainability, Geopolitics and Critical Mineral Supply Chains. https://www.sei.org/publications/sustainability-geopolitics-critical-mineral-supply-chains/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Sustainability, Geopolitics and Critical Mineral Supply Chains. 2025. https://www.sei.org/publications/sustainability-geopolitics-critical-mineral-supply-chains/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Sustainability, Geopolitics and Critical Mineral Supply Chains |date=24 October 2025 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/sustainability-geopolitics-critical-mineral-supply-chains/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2025sustainability, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Sustainability, Geopolitics and Critical Mineral Supply Chains}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/sustainability-geopolitics-critical-mineral-supply-chains/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }