Operations Management: An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition

THE SUSTAINABILITY LINK

Environmental concerns, including climate change, energy use, environmental contamination, and resource depletion, are all part of the contemporary business landscape. Emerging economies, such as that of India and China, are growing at double-digit rates, and continued growth of the world population has created shortages of many resources we used to take for granted. Companies are increasingly aware that they must design their operations functions, and their entire supply chains, for sustainability. This means designing their operations processes to better and more efficiently use their resources, to use environmentally friendly inputs, and create outputs that can be recycled and that do not contaminate the environment. It also means better use of human resources, from labor to suppliers.

The operations function, with its transformation role, is uniquely poised to help companies achieve their sustainability goals. One of the best examples of this is illustrated through the joint efforts of the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) and Major League Baseball (MLB) to change baseball operations to reduce the environmental impact. The “operation” of a baseball game brings together numerous industries, such as the beverage and chemical industries, as well as automotive, plastics, steel, and agriculture. The NRDC and MLB have worked together to make MLB operations more sustainable by working with industries that serve as suppliers for baseball games, and placing ...