Examining the Role of Blockchain in Enhancing Transparency and Traceability in Sustainable Supply Chains

Sustainable supply chains increasingly require verifiable transparency and end to end traceability to satisfy regulatory expectations, extended producer responsibility initiatives, and rising consumer demand for credible sustainability claims. This research investigates the role of blockchain in enabling trustworthy tracking and tracing across multi tier networks by creating an immutable, time stamped, and auditable record of product provenance, process steps, and compliance evidence. The study first conducts a structured literature review to identify dominant use cases, data elements, and performance metrics, and to synthesize technical, organizational, and legal challenges. Particular attention is given to data quality, participant incentives, privacy and confidentiality, scalability, governance, and the risk of recording inaccurate physical events. Building on these insights, the research develops an implementation roadmap that links architectural decisions such as consortium governance, permissioning, consensus choice, smart contract design, and on chain versus off chain data placement to supply chain objectives. The roadmap specifies interoperability requirements for integrating blockchain with enterprise resource planning systems and complementary Industry 4.0 technologies, including IoT sensing, digital identifiers, and analytics, so that physical events are captured reliably and translated into standardized digital records. The research concludes with design principles and traceability key performance indicators that support pilot to scale deployment and continuous improvement. Overall, the findings suggest that blockchain can improve transparency, reduce verification effort, and strengthen trust, but only when it is embedded in robust governance and aligned with disciplined data capture and process controls. These guidelines inform managers selecting platforms and prioritizing investments for supply chain value.