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This work is about sustainability-related learning experiences for the discipline of supply chain management (SCM) in Higher Education. It arises from the need to motivate students with relevant and interesting activities to improve their learning performance. Higher Education must respond to dynamic demands to keep impactful topics for students, organizations, and society over time. This work addresses the relevance of contemporary challenges in real-world SCM situations concerning Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also provides an actionable framework integrating experiential learning ideas, the ADDIE model for instructional design, the Triple Bottom Line for sustainability, the continuous improvement cycle, and the SDGs into an SCM model. In a case study, the article illustrates the use of this framework for instructional design in a learning experience from an undergraduate course in an Industrial and Systems Engineering program. The application describes the impact of food ecosystems on cities and communities during the COVID-19 crisis. The results suggest positive attainment levels in students’ learning outcomes and highly favorable opinions regarding learning relevance, interest, motivation, and the recommendation of the course. Therefore, this work contributes to SCM education by including sustainability-related challenges and disciplinary topics in novel instructional designs that will actively prepare future professionals and decision-makers.

Packaging plays an important role in the movement and distribution of products along the supply chain by safely ensuring proper product delivery, achieving economies of scale through standardization, and serving as a selling tool. Packaging presents associated high economic and environmental costs for transportation, picking, handling, storing, and returning products. Considering the high demand for paper and cardboard worldwide and the projected increase during the next decade, there is a latent need to prevent and reduce the possible waste from packaging. The return of cardboard boxes used for packaging to the product suppliers could be a feasible solution to tackle this issue; however, it seems to be a disposable cost that companies assume when delivering products to highly fragmented markets. This research intends to understand the role that nanostores play in affecting whether or not cardboard packages are returned after receiving the products from suppliers and how likely shopkeepers are to support closing the loops in the current supply chain system. A survey with 27 questions related to recycling, reusing, reselling, returning, and waste was designed and applied to three hundred thirty-seven shopkeepers in two stages. The data was analyzed through plot analysis and descriptive statistical methods. The results show that some dynamic drivers and intervention schemes may increase the current returnability rate of packaging (11%) to the level of reuse rates (75% in these small, family-owned retailers). We found that thicker cardboard packages foster reuse and recycling rates. Based on the results, we propose that startups close the gap to trigger returnability and recycling while the government develops regulations to support these initiatives.