It seems, in today’s business environment, practitioners and academicians are increasingly becoming conscious of the importance of two trends in supply chain management–namely risk management and supply chain sustainability. However, while the supply chain risk management (SCRM) categories, such as disruptions, delays, systems risk and the others, and their drivers and mitigation techniques have been identified theoretically for some time, there is minimal empirical evidence of the real life application of SCRM methods by supply chain managers. The same is true about the theory versus the real life application of supply chain sustainability methods. In other words, many supply chain managers identify sustainability as a strategic business driver, but use it as a mere public relation tool.

Therefore, while these two concepts are receiving growing attention by supply chain managers, and are related to each other, the extent to which the techniques of SCRM and sustainability are used by the practitioners remains to be determined. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of understanding of the Supply Chain sustainability on the part of supply chain managers, and to determine to what extent practitioners address this strategic issue in their chains. The methodology involves the use of a primary questioner to identify what supply chain executives deem as important concerns for sustainability in their chains, and how these factors relate to the ones reported in academic literature. Based on our findings in the first part, a second survey will determine whether supply chain managers are addressing their sustainability issues effectively by using the methods that are recommended by academicians.