OM Forum - Sustainable Operations Management: An Enduring Stream or a Passing Fancy?

Paul Kleindorfer was among the first to weigh in on and nurture the stream of sustainable operations management. The thoughts laid out here are based on conversations we had with Paul relating to the drivers underlying sustainability as a management issue: population and per capita consumption growth, the limited nature of resources and sinks, and the responsibility and exposure of firms to ensuing ecological risks and costs. We then discuss how an operations management lens contributes to the issue and criteria to help the sustainable operations management perspective endure. This paper relates to a presentation delivered by Morris Cohen for Paul's Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Distinguished Fellows Award, given at Columbia University, June 18, 2012. We wrote this paper at Paul's request.

[1]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD SPECIAL ISSUE , 2003 .

[2]  Cheryl T. Druehl,et al.  Design for the Environment: Life‐Cycle Approach Using a Newsvendor Model , 2013 .

[3]  Gilvan C. Souza.  Closed-Loop Supply Chains: A Critical Review, and Future Research , 2013, Decis. Sci..

[4]  David B. Richardson,et al.  Electric vehicles and the electric grid: A review of modeling approaches, Impacts, and renewable energy integration , 2013 .

[5]  Michael W. Toffel,et al.  Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change , 2012, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[6]  J. Murray,et al.  Climate policy: Oil's tipping point has passed , 2012, Nature.

[7]  René de Koster,et al.  Non-dominated time-window policies in city distribution , 2013 .

[8]  Andreas Löschel,et al.  Designing Emissions Trading in Practice - General Considerations and Experiences from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) , 2012 .

[9]  Stefan Spinler,et al.  Valuation of electric vehicle batteries in vehicle-to-grid and battery-to-grid systems , 2012 .

[10]  Janine M. Benyus,et al.  Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature , 1997 .

[11]  Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al.  Technology Choice and Capacity Portfolios under Emissions Regulation , 2015 .

[12]  J. Derraik.  The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review. , 2002, Marine pollution bulletin.

[13]  Aon Benfield,et al.  Annual global climate and catastrophe report: impact forecasting - 2010. , 2009 .

[14]  Rob A. Zuidwijk,et al.  Double Counting in Supply Chain Carbon Footprinting , 2013, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[15]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: INTRODUCTION TO PART 1 (MANUFACTURING AND ECOLOGISTICS) , 2009 .

[16]  Melissa McAloose,et al.  Nuclear Power in France , 1997 .

[17]  Paul R. Kleindorfer.  Interdependency of Science and Risk Finance in Catastrophe Insurance and Climate Change , 2010 .

[18]  P. Ehrlich,et al.  IMPACT OF POPULATION GROWTH , 1971, Science.

[19]  Erica L. Plambeck,et al.  Effects of E-Waste Regulation on New Product Introduction , 2009, Manag. Sci..

[20]  William McDonough,et al.  A World of Abundance , 2000, Interfaces.

[21]  Stefano Schiavon,et al.  Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. , 2007 .

[22]  E. Plambeck.  Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through operations and supply chain management , 2012 .

[23]  Paul R Jay Kleindorfer,et al.  Equity Decisions: Economic Development and Environmental Prudence , 1995 .

[24]  Jay Barracato.  Toxics Release Inventory , 2002 .

[25]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  A Note on Peak Loads and Non-uniform Costs , 1970 .

[26]  Sam Aflaki,et al.  The effect of environmental uncertainty on the tragedy of the commons , 2013, Games Econ. Behav..

[27]  Mark E. Ferguson,et al.  PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT , 2008 .

[28]  A. Spilhaus,et al.  The Next Industrial Revolution , 1970, Science.

[29]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS: INTRODUCTION TO PART 2 (INTEGRATING OPERATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS) , 2009 .

[30]  Luyi Gui,et al.  Implementing Extended Producer Responsibility Legislation , 2013 .

[31]  M. A. Crew,et al.  Peak Load Pricing with a Diverse Technology , 1976 .

[32]  D. Meadows,et al.  The limits to growth. A report for the Club of Rome's project on the predicament of mankind. , 1972 .

[33]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  Guidelines for Coping with Natural Disasters and Climatic Change , 1980 .

[34]  Richard A Kerr,et al.  Energy supplies. Peak oil production may already be here. , 2011, Science.

[35]  H. Daly.  Toward some operational principles of sustainable development , 1990 .

[36]  Ravi Subramanian,et al.  Extended Producer Responsibility for E‐Waste: Individual or Collective Producer Responsibility? , 2012 .

[37]  L. V. Wassenhove,et al.  Sustainable Operations Management , 2005 .

[38]  Sezer Ülkü,et al.  The Role of Modular Upgradability as a Green Design Strategy , 2011, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[39]  Özge Islegen,et al.  Carbon Capture by Fossil Fuel Power Plants: An Economic Analysis , 2009, Manag. Sci..

[40]  A. Jaffe,et al.  Environmental Policy and Technological Change , 2002 .

[41]  H. S. Matthews,et al.  The importance of carbon footprint estimation boundaries. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[42]  L. Beril Toktay,et al.  Market Segmentation and Product Technology Selection for Remanufacturable Products , 2005, Manag. Sci..

[43]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  Informational Regulation of Environmental Risks , 1998 .

[44]  Douglas W. Allen.  The Ultimate Resource: 2. By Julian L. Simon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. Pp. 734. $35.00 , 1998 .

[45]  F. Crespi,et al.  Environmental Policy and Induced Technological Change in European Industries , 2012 .

[46]  Walter A. Lyon.  THE ENVIRONMENTAL HANDBOOK. PREPARED FOR THE FIRST NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL TEACH-IN, APRIL, 1970 , 1970 .

[47]  Atalay Atasu,et al.  Remanufacturing, Third-Party Competition, and Consumers' Perceived Value of New Products , 2012, Manag. Sci..

[48]  Chonnikarn Fern Jira,et al.  Engaging Supply Chains in Climate Change , 2012 .

[49]  F. Chapin,et al.  A safe operating space for humanity , 2009, Nature.

[50]  Richard K. Lattanzio.  Canadian Oil Sands: Life-Cycle Assessments of Greenhouse Gas Emissions , 2012 .

[51]  Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al.  Efficient Take‐Back Legislation , 2009 .

[52]  V. Daniel R. Guide,et al.  OR FORUM - The Evolution of Closed-Loop Supply Chain Research , 2009, Oper. Res..

[53]  Wenbin Wang,et al.  Dynamic Capacity Investment with Two Competing Technologies , 2013, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[54]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  Single-year and multi-year insurance policies in a competitive market , 2012 .

[55]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis , 2013 .

[56]  Gérard P. Cachon,et al.  Severe Weather and Automobile Assembly Productivity , 2012 .

[57]  K. Watkins.  Human Development Report 2006 - Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis , 2006 .

[58]  N. Meinshausen,et al.  Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2 °C , 2009, Nature.

[59]  Antony Trewavas,et al.  Malthus foiled again and again , 2002, Nature.

[60]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  Predicting and confirming the effectiveness of systems for managing low‐probability chemical process risks , 2006 .

[61]  Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al.  HeidelbergCement: The Baltic Kiln Decision , 2014 .

[62]  T. Malthus.  An essay on the principle of population, as it affects the future improvement of society , 2006 .

[63]  Anton Ovchinnikov,et al.  Revenue and Cost Management for Remanufactured Products , 2011 .

[64]  T. Wonnacott,et al.  The Ultimate Resource 2 , 1982 .

[65]  Paul C. Stern,et al.  Climate and social stress: implications for security analysis. , 2013 .

[66]  Sulin Ba,et al.  Stock Market Reaction to Green Vehicle Innovation , 2012 .

[67]  Paul R. Kleindorfer,et al.  Competition, Universal Service and the Graveyard Spiral , 2005 .

[68]  Stefan Spinler,et al.  Fleet Renewal with Electric Vehicles at La Poste , 2012, Interfaces.

[69]  Robert U. Ayres,et al.  Economics and the Environment: A Materials Balance Approach , 1971 .

[70]  Ravi Subramanian,et al.  Sharing Responsibility for Product Recovery Across the Supply Chain , 2012 .

[71]  G. Hardin,et al.  The Tragedy of the Commons , 1968, Green Planet Blues.

[72]  David Popp,et al.  Energy, the Environment, and Technological Change , 2009 .

[73]  Mathis Wackernagel,et al.  Natural capital accounting with the ecological footprint concept , 1999 .

[74]  Maria J. Doa.  The Toxics Release Inventory , 1992 .

[75]  M. Chopra,et al.  Diarrhoea: why children are still dying and what can be done , 2010, The Lancet.

[76]  Mark Ferguson,et al.  Remanufacturing and the component commonality decision , 2013 .