Sustainable Operations: Innovations in Management for a Greener Future

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, the global community has increasingly recognized the urgency of addressing environmental challenges, such as climate change, resource depletion, and pollution. These environmental issues pose significant threats to the planet's ecosystems and human well-being, necessitating urgent and innovative responses from all sectors, including business and industry.

Sustainable operations management has emerged as a critical field within the broader sustainability agenda, focusing on the development and implementation of management strategies that minimize negative environmental impacts while enhancing economic and social performance. This field recognizes that businesses and organizations play a pivotal role in driving environmental change, both through their operational activities and their influence on supply chains and consumer behavior.

Innovations in management are crucial for advancing sustainable operations. Traditional management approaches often prioritize economic performance at the expense of environmental and social considerations. However, the increasing awareness of the interconnectedness of these three pillars of sustainability has led to the development of new management frameworks and tools that integrate environmental sustainability into core business strategies.

Technological advancements, such as digitalization, big data, and artificial intelligence, are also playing a transformative role in sustainable operations. These technologies enable businesses to monitor and manage their environmental impacts more effectively, optimize resource use, and identify opportunities for innovation and efficiency improvements. Despite these developments, there remain significant challenges in achieving the widespread adoption of sustainable operations practices. Here, barriers such as a lack of awareness, financial constraints, and regulatory hurdles can hinder progress. Moreover, the complexity and interconnectedness of global supply chains pose additional challenges in achieving sustainability across entire value chains.

The Special Issue, “Sustainable Operations: Innovations in Management for a Greener Future”, welcomes original research articles, case studies, and review papers that explore various facets of sustainable operations management. Key areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Sustainable innovation and green innovation;
• Green supply chain management;
• Digitalization and new technology in sustainable operations;
• Circular economy and sustainable production;
• Environmental policy and regulation in sustainable operations;
• ESG, climate change and sustainable innovation;
• Sustainable operations in emerging markets;
• Stakeholder engagement and collaboration in sustainable operations;
• Energy efficiency and renewable energy in operations;
• Capital markets and sustainable operations;
• Improvements in quality, productivity and sustainability.

Dr. Huayu Shen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainable innovation
• green supply chain
• environmental policy
• climate change
• ESG
• renewable energy in operations
• sustainable operation