ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which operations strategists need to incorporate knowledge of sustainability in their decision making and other activities–as a business issue. It includes a combination of business thinking, science, politics, history and human behaviour, wrapped up in implications for operations management. The chapter explores concepts such as resource scarcity and endangered materials, carbon trading and life cycle assessment, and revisit leanness and muda. It looks at ideas such as corporate social responsibility and grapple with the combined effect of population growth and levels of consumption. The chapter presents some specific knowledge of topics and accesses a very extensive wealth of resources on the subject via the internet. A related model of organizational learning posits a dynamic knowledge-creation process involving the socialization and internalization of tacit and explicit knowledge. Single-loop learning plus may help a supply chain to achieve results beyond compliance by identifying potential continuous improvement opportunities within the existing frameworks.
