Sustainable supply chain management governance and its potential implications for embodied carbon in buildings

Purpose This study adopts a governance perspective to clarify the frictions arising when building supply chains are decarbonised through a transition toward Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). It addresses two questions: which governance gaps recur in SSCM and what causes them, and how these gaps translate into decision points shaping embodied-carbon outcomes across building supply chains. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance was conducted. After screening 5,181 Scopus records across business, management, engineering, and construction categories, 41 management-oriented articles were analysed through directed content analysis to derive six recurrent governance gaps. Findings were then contextualised within a three-layer, nine-step building supply-chain framework and interpreted through institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and transaction cost economics to locate decision points where gaps impede embodied-carbon reduction. Findings Informational, communication, and power gaps arise mainly from SSCM internal structures, whereas compliance, geographic, and legitimacy gaps are more strongly shaped by external institutional and environmental conditions. These frictions narrow low-carbon options in early design, weaken evidentiary requirements and comparability during tendering and award, and reduce the credibility of process verification in construction. Cases including Kering, High Speed 2, Burj Khalifa, and the UK Embodied Carbon in Buildings initiative illustrate how each gap appears at specific decision nodes. Originality/value This study offers the first governance-centred mapping linking SSCM gaps to embodied-carbon decision nodes in buildings. It proposes a pragmatic agenda integrating carbon training, horizontal and vertical collaboration, and digital governance, and converts it into testable research questions for future empirical work.