Sustainability is one of the most pressing concerns of our time. The vision of a sustainable world—capable of meeting the needs of both current and future generations—is gaining ever more traction with governments and societies across the globe. Business operations have become a major target for sustainable development, according to Hongtao Zhang of HKUST and Hau L. Lee of Stanford University, co-editors of the 2019 Special Issue on Innovations and Sustainability of the journal Production and Operations Management. In their introduction to this timely and important collection, Zhang and Lee offer brief yet eloquent remarks on the significance of the topic and sketch out the issue’s structure.

“Sustainability has become an important area of research within the production and operations management community,” their introduction begins. With mounting concern about climate change and other environmental issues, managers today are under pressure from policy makers and the public to develop more sustainable approaches to firm production and operations. “At the same time,” say Zhang and Lee, “some leading companies have found that building excellence in sustainability can help reduce cost, increase brand equity, and potentially improve sales opportunities.” Clearly, therefore, both researchers and practitioners have incentives to pursue sustainability in business operations.

This can be done in many ways, in line with the broad view of sustainability taken by the production and operations management community. For this community, the co-editors explain, sustainability encompasses social and environmental responsibility, ethical behavior, product integrity, and the economic and social development of local communities. “Such a broad view has stimulated many innovations in production and operations management on how sustainability can be improved,” say Zhang and Lee. “This special issue is about such innovations.”

Their original inspiration to produce a collection on this theme came from the 2017 Symposium on Innovations and Sustainability in Hong Kong. Jointly organized by HKUST and Stanford University, this landmark event prompted a wave of research on sustainability-based innovations in products, processes and value chains. “The great interest generated [by] the symposium became the impetus for this special issue,” explain the co-editors. “Indeed, many symposium participants subsequently submitted their manuscripts to us.”

The issue showcases a rich array of these papers, which explore various critical sustainability issues and innovative solutions, particularly from an operations perspective. “This special issue reflects the diversity of research interests of the production and operations management community,” note the co-editors, “and the extensive potential that exists in innovations on sustainability.”

Although diverse, the papers fall into two distinct groups. The first is a set of three “perspective” papers, offering “a high-level, panoramic view of general challenges and research opportunities.” The second is a set of five papers that study specific issues by modeling a few key features at the individual stakeholder level. “The two groups, taken together, will help the reader see the overall outline of the sustainability forest and a few innovation trees close up,” say Zhang and Lee.

With demand for sustainable business practices rocketing, this special issue is essential reading for all those seeking to understand and profit from sustainability in production and operations management. The issue not only documents recent innovations for sustainable business operations but also sheds light on the opportunities and challenges ahead. “It is our wish,” conclude Zhang and Lee, “that the two groups of papers will also stimulate the reader to pursue research and contribute to this fast-growing field.”