**Preface to "Driving Sustainability through Engineering Management and Systems Engineering"**

As the world continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a pressing need to address the corresponding health and economic crises that have gripped many nations. The continued deployment of vaccines is targeted towards alleviating the health situation, and both governments and central banks combined with the private sector are focused on enabling economic recovery. Clearly, these matters are of paramount importance. However, the need to ensure we transition to a more sustainable development path remains a priority; although it may have been somewhat overshadowed by recent events, it certainly has not gone away. Indeed, while some reports indicated that carbon dioxide emissions were reduced in the first half of 2020, they rapidly picked up to the previously unsustainable levels in the latter half of the year. Tackling climate change and global warming remains a major challenge towards the top of the list of priorities on the journey to sustainability, although there are of course many others that are part of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

If we are to heed the warnings of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and keep the global temperature increase to within 1.5°C, there is an urgent need for action across multiple fronts. This includes a continued focus across the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social requirements combined with leveraging the latest scientific and technological developments. Moreover, while the challenge of green growth and sustainable development continues, it is accompanied by the parallel opportunity of harnessing the latest technologies. This includes emerging technologies associated with Industry 4.0 as well as others, such as developments in the renewable energy sector. Therefore, it is important that we have the available tools and techniques to tackle the twin challenges and opportunities associated with sustainability.

The disciplines of engineering management and systems engineering offer such a toolset. Engineering management is concerned with the management of people and projects related to technological and engineering systems, while systems engineering is focused on the design, integration and management of complex systems across the full development life cycle. Engineering management and systems engineering provide both a theoretical foundation and complementary set of practitioner-oriented tools, techniques and models that can be used to develop and manage across the project, programme, portfolio and organisational dimensions. This includes both the technological and people dimensions associated with system design and technology management applications. Consequently, engineering management and systems engineering are ideally suited to drive sustainability.

This book includes chapters that reveal new insights into sustainability according to various perspectives. The chapters comprise a range of empirical and conceptual methods that enable quantitative and qualitative investigations of the underlying phenomenon of interest. Although the chapters adopt different approaches from across engineering management and systems engineering, they have a common focus on advancing our understanding of how sustainable development can be supported and delivered. The chapters provide details on a range of different research studies, and this includes understanding how to measure the SDG impact of infrastructure projects; development of an improved process for selecting sustainable projects; evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 on the food and beverages manufacturing sector; understanding the adoption of complexity theory in engineering management and the implications for sustainability; investigating the scope for a vehicle-to-grid strategy to improve the energy performance of buildings; and understanding how the data centre industry can be transformed into a circular economy model. In conclusion, sustainable development and achievement of the SDGs represent an important journey, where the disciplines of engineering management and systems engineering can be viewed as the vehicles to ensure the journey towards sustainability is continued.

> **Simon P. Philbin** *Editor*
