An Agenda for Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Management Research

International audienceThe purpose of this paper is to review some of the key challenges to sustainable operations and supply chain management and provide future research directions. While sustainability and sustainable development is defined in many ways, the principles of integrating economic, environmental and social imperatives are well understood. Despite an expanding understanding of the implications of sustainability, research to date, as well as practical implementation, reveals many areas for further development. Sustainability is a particularly difficult subject to research which raises many trade-off situations. As examples, there are conflicts between different environmental factors (energy and waste) when taking a life cycle perspective and burgeoning institutional constraints limit the economic degrees of freedom (limiting opportunities for closed loop solutions). Drawing on past experiences, recent research and current practices, this article provides a framework for future research in sustainable operations and supply chain management