ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some of the key themes of sustainability as they relate to supply networks. For this chapter we adopt the term networks instead of chains because, as is shown later, the scope of activity is much wider than immediate links in a chain. The field of sustainability and sustainable development has continued to evolve since the original Rio summit in 1992 and the publication of the seminal Brundtland report issuing from this global event. United Nations summits and meetings have continued over the last 20 years creating more precise definitions of sustainability in general and treating specific issues in detail (e.g. biodiversity and climate change). Therefore, it is useful to critically discuss some of the latest thinking on sustainability and to reflect on how this evolution impacts the management of supply networks.
