Abstract
Dear reader: thank you for taking an interest in our book on sustainable operations management! This is an edited book about what we and our co-contributors believe to be a topical and highly important issue. We also realize that this is an issue with political overtones that may cause divides and heated debates. Despite several global warnings and calls for action with respect to becoming more sustainable, disagreement and even resistance remains towards the call for action towards more sustainability and the urgency for action. The dissent has moved from outward rejection of any climate change happening, to a discussion regarding the impact of this change on society (Lomborg, 2010). Currently, the debate revolves around whether we understand how and to what extent the current rate of natural resource exploitation affects global climatic conditions, how much and at what rate it will affect us and which route is the most promising to follow in order to become (more) sustainable. Take the case of the Trump administration, which repeatedly has expressed skepticism towards climate change and has withdrawn the United States from the UN climate negotiations. Consequently, the US presidential administration has removed sustainability from the agenda of political aims for the United States and is currently considering rolling back the greenhouse gas emission policies that were put into action by the former president, Barack Obama. Meanwhile, the depletion of resources and the unintended consequences of unlimited growth in production and consumption are increasingly recognized in other parts of the United States and by stakeholders in other societies in-and outside the United States.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adner, R. (2012). The wide lens: A new strategy for innovation. London: Penguin.
Ariely, D. (2010). You are what you measure. Harvard Business Review, 88(6), 38.
Bateson, G. (1973). Steps to the ecology of mind. St. Albans: Paladin.
Beer, S. (1981). The brain of the firm (2nd ed.). Chichester: Wiley & Sons.
Boulding, K. E. (1966). The economics of the coming spaceship earth. In H. Jarrett (Ed.), Environmental quality in a growing economy (pp. 3–14). Baltimore, MD: Resources for the Future/Johns Hopkins University Press.
Caldwell, S. (2016). Co-op launches small business charter to support local suppliers. Retrieved April 19, 2018, from http://businessadvice.co.uk/supply-chain/sourcing-suppliers/co-op-launches-small-business-charter-to-support-local-suppliers/
Chen, Q., Reisser, J., Cunsolo, S., Kwadijk, C., Kotterman, M., Proietti, M., et al. (2018). Pollutants in plastics within the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Environmental Science & Technology, 52, 446–456.
Cyert, R. M., & March, J. G. (1963). A behavioral theory of the firm. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Espinosa, A., Harnden, R., & Walker, J. (2008). A complexity approach to sustainability–Stafford Beer revisited. European Journal of Operational Research, 187(2), 636–651.
Frenken, K. (2017). Sustainability perspectives on the sharing economy. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 23, 1–2.
Hart, S. L. (2015). Innovation, creative destruction and sustainability. Research-Technology Management, 48(5), 21–27.
de Leeuw, A. C. J. (1976). The control paradigm as an aid for understanding and designing organizations (TH Eindhoven. Vakgr. organisatiekunde: Rapport; Vol. 36). Eindhoven: Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven.
Lomborg, B. (2010). Cool it: The skeptical environmentalist’s guide to global warming. New York: Vintage.
Loorbach, D. (2010). Transition management for sustainable development: A prescriptive, complexity-based governance framework. Governance, 23(1), 161–183.
McKinsey & Company. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability-and-resource-productivity/our-insights/sustainabilitys-deepening-imprint
Min, H., & Kim, I. (2012). Green supply chain research: Past, present, and future. Logistics Research, 4(1–2), 39–47.
Seuring, S., & Müller, M. (2008). From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 16(15), 1699–1710.
Starik, M., Sharma, S., Egri, C., & Bunch, R. (Eds.). (2017). New horizons in research on sustainable organisations: Emerging ideas, approaches and tools for practitioners and researchers. Abingdon: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Houman Andersen, P., de Boer, L. (2019). Sustainable Operations Management (SOM): An Introduction to and Overview of the Book. In: de Boer, L., Houman Andersen, P. (eds) Operations Management and Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93212-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93212-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93211-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93212-5
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)