Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Management

PREFACE

The increasing relevance of the debate on the future of our planet is witnessed by the high number of claims and speeches recently pronounced, among which the following seem to be particularly meaningful:

In rising to the climate challenge, we can set the world on a sustainable footing for generations to come, and lay the foundation for prosperity and security for all… We have only one planet. There is no Plan B because there is no planet B.

Ban Ki Moon, United Nations General Secretary, on the first day of the final week of the 21st UN Climate Summit, December 7, 2015.

I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all…. Some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor, and causes millions of premature deaths…. Technology, which, linked to business interests, is presented as the only way of solving these problems, in fact proves incapable of seeing the mysterious network of relations between things and so sometimes solves one problem only to create others.

Pope Francis, encyclical letter “Laudato Si’” On Care for our Common Home, May 24, 2015.

Unsafe and poor working conditions lead to significant social and economic losses and are linked to environmental damage. Given ...