Sustainable operations management (SOM): An introduction to and overview of the book

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 Take the case of the Trump administration, which repeatedly has expressed skepticism towards climate change and has withdrawn the United States from the UN climate negotiations.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.